Thorium Molten Salt Reactor: Infinite Supply of Electrical Power at Low Cost
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- Опубліковано 7 лип 2024
- This film was produced in 1969 by Oak Ridge National Laboratory for the United States Atomic Energy Commission (now the Department of Energy) to inform the public regarding the history, technology, and milestones of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment and the promise of infinite supply of electrical power at low cost with thorium as the fuel.
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This is a very important video! 'Seeing is believing' even if it's only a video and so many years have passed. Never too late to do the right thing, let's just do it!
Breaking Thorium News - World's First TMSR/LFTR test in over 45 years started in... ua-cam.com/video/KaeSGZu_KlA/v-deo.html
Why are this not being funded IN MASSES around the world????
New nuclear reactors cost too much because there isn't enough global demand for nuclear energy.
nuclear has a bad name
@@justintremblay2318 so do i but I continue anyways 🤣
Of the six proposed fourth-generation nuclear reactor types, the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) is the only type with high fuel efficiency, no danger of explosion, and does not generate substantial amounts of plutonium. The fissile uranium-233 produced by the MSR is difficult to use for weapons because of the presence of highly radioactive uranium-232. While other Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) can serve as a short-term solution, MSRs are considered a more promising mid-term solution due to their potential to address these issues more comprehensively. Hopefully, we will have fusion by the time we run out of uranium and thorium. With the molten salt reactor, 7.5 million tons of uranium will be exhausted in a thousand years at an annual consumption of 7500 tons. Using thorium will extend it by a couple of thousand years.
The differences between Light Water Reactors (LWR) and Thorium Molten Salt Reactors (TMSR) are significant in fuel utilization and waste production. LWRs use approximately 0.5-1% of uranium fuel, leading to the generation of long-lived radioactive waste due to inefficient energy conversion and the use of enriched uranium. In contrast, TMSRs can achieve fuel efficiency of up to 98%. This is achieved by converting fertile thorium-232 into fissile uranium-233, substantially reducing waste production and more manageable radioactive waste. Uranium Molten Salt Reactors (UMSR) will produce more plutonium but are just as effective as TMSRs.
940 kg of natural thorium in a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) can generate 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity for one year. In comparison, generating the same amount of energy in a Light Water Reactor (LWR) would require mining 210 tons of uranium. In an MSR, the storage requirement for 83 percent of the spent fuel is 10 years, and 300 years for the remaining 17 percent, whereas in an LWR, 24.44 tons of spent fuel need reprocessing and storage for 200,000 years. MSRs can utilize the spent fuel from LWRs. A coal power station will need to burn 3.5 million tons of coal and emit 10 million tons of carbon dioxide to produce the same amount of energy for one year. That amount of coal contains 3 to 14 tons of uranium, 3 to 14 tons of thorium, and an average of 84 tons of arsenic.
MSRs can adjust power output to match electricity demand, thanks to the inherent and automatic load-following capability provided by the fluid nature of the molten salt coolant. A key safety feature of MSR is that it automatically adjusts to prevent overheating. This is achieved through a "negative thermal reactivity coefficient," which means that as the temperature rises, the reactor's reactivity decreases, preventing a runaway chain reaction. Additionally, the MSR has a "negative void reactivity coefficient," ensuring that the reactivity decreases if there is a loss of coolant or boiling, preventing potential overheating. These safety measures help keep the reactor stable and safe under various conditions.
Looking ahead to 2040, China plans to deploy Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) for desalination of seawater, district heating or cooling, hydrogen production, powering of ships equipped with Thermoacoustic Stirling Generators, and power plants with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Turbines within its borders and globally. In the Earth's crust, thorium is nearly four times more abundant than uranium. Every atom of natural thorium can be harnessed, unlike natural uranium, where only 1 out of every 139 atoms can be used. China produces thorium as a byproduct of its rare earth processing. Similar to the trends observed with solar and wind technologies, MSR costs are anticipated to decrease with the scaling up of production and the development of robust supply chains.
US preferred to maintain a uranium production system for its nuclear weapons. If the world had adopted thorium, there would be no wars for oil, and no country would depend on gas and oil. It's a matter of politics. Here in Brazil, my government preferred uranium as well, after cancel it thorium program (nuclear wepons as well - it is strategic for deterrence). With virtually infinite energy, obtaining water for planting and energy for industrial parks would be no problem. Every country in the world could have this. But the stupidity and greed of some men is still greater than desire to serve mankind.
Thank you for summarizing it
HOLY CRAP!
A dream thats remain as dream... even after TMI nightmare :(
"..and features a high-speed digital computer"
I wonder what they could have done with a smartphone in 1969?
Andreas Norlin Without a network, nothing. They couldn't make an app for it either, no turbo C.
Well, it is all about input and output. These guys are sure clever enough to use its power without a network... Imagine building what they did with paper and a calculator?
Really depends on what apps are pre-installed. You could get pretty far with something like AIDE, right up until the battery died - though I figure they could hammer out a 5V power supply.
A calculator, I think you mean a slide rule!
Hope the new president will learn of this and unburry it. Would be glorious.
Trump and Satoshi Tsunakawa (CEO of Toshiba Corporation aka Westinghouse) are very close friends.... you do the math...
cerverg really these dots I think could be connected!
He's the best chance we've had in decades, but it does seem like he is very pro big oil & status quo current nukes. cerverg may be right on the math part, it wouldn't be good for either of they're budgets if this came back to light.
Is that a cameo appearance by Alvin Weinberg at 16:00?
Steve Hudson indeed it is Alvin Weinberg, he looks quite proud doesn't he?
Yes that's Weinberg and he should be proud, this thing is 100% humanitarian.
Gaseous fission products what happens to the Krypton and boron I like it but I am skeptical they tell you half the story ?
Ron hawk if really interested there is plenty of data for the novice to look st and understand
These two can be cleaned with simple chemical filters like they're using on the Fukushima Daiichi site.
ok cleaned then what put in your pocket haw about stripping of electrons by a accelerator then collide them
Then the ground shook!
Wait wait wait in the video they say U235? I thought this reactor was using U233? Does that mean U233 was never used in any type of reactor ever?
The MSRE wasn't a breeder. Its job was to demonstrate that MSRs work.
It was the first step towards a Thorium breeder.
I understand it was operated with U233 later. But never with thorium.
Thorium was used in the solid fuel, heavy water shippingport reactor, which actually was the first thorium breeder. It made more U233 than the initial U235 mix loaded into the reactor.
90% Thorium + 10% Plutonium and ~90% Low Enriched Uranium + Thorium as an additive fuels are being tested without issues at Halden Test Reactor. Google "Thor Energy" Thorium for details. This testing should complete in 2017 or early 2018 and allow regular PWR reactors to run with Thorium mix in the fuels. It's also the fuel foundation for under design ABWR reactors to breed U233 from Thorium using reduced moderation.
Marcelo Pacheco I didn't even mention "Thorium" or "Breeder". The question was all about Uranium 233....They had plenty of U233 back then so the supply was not an issue. My question was "Has U233 ever been used in any type of reactor ever?" Seems like the answer is NO
Any fuel with Thorium makes it power from U233. U233 is an artificially made isotope from Th232, so they go hand in hand. There's no Thorium reactors without U233 and no U233 being made without Th232. Now please re-read my previous post. Thanks.
Where was the actual generator they had the molten salt heating cooling salt and no actual generators
This was an experiment to determine if the reactor would generate heat efficiently, the next step was to convert the heat to electricity, but it got canned due to political reasons.