Welcome to the Rock Logic podcast! Here, host Sean Kenny discusses in detail future technology and government policy surrounding it. Topics include thorium molten salt reactors as a solution to climate change, other forms of nuclear energy such as nuclear fusion, Mars colonization, renewable energy, electronics manufacturing, and much more! New episodes every Sunday.
I was thinking about sodium cooled reactors recently and realized one thing: as many problems as they had in the past, none of them exploded. I think LWR have much bigger problems when things go wrong in a bad way. Also, Terrapower isn't using sodium in the secondary loop. The reactor is just a big tub of molten sodium. They don't even have pumps. There's just a heat exchanger that they use to heat up liquid salt.
The problem with space exploration is not propulsion. The problem is power generation. Nuclear power is the only way to get the energy a spacecraft needs to do anything it needs to for its mission. Mag beam is interesting, but it doesn't solve the problem of power on the spacecraft itself. You and everyone who cares about space travel cares about humans having a reason to be there (wherever we go), that means having the power to survive, exploit resources, explore, communicate, navigate, etc... independent of any other infrastructure. And solar panels are frankly useless past the orbit of Mars. This means nukes in space, regardless of the shielding needs, are the only useful answer long-term.
Salt water is better to control the Uranium fission process (alpha, beta, gamma particles) because there is sodium chloride (salt) dissolved in the water - more particles in the water.
Also the US had a molten salt reactor, that predated the wide adoption of the Pressurized Water Reactor for electrical generation. It was the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Graphite moderator block with fuel in the form of enclosed containers filled with molten fluoride salts of lithium, beryllium, zirconium, uranium and thorium. Cooled with molten fluoride salts of lithium and beryllium called FLiBe. All pumped and contained with Hastalloy-N superalloy pipes and fittings. If you say no that only used thorium not uranium you are mistaken. Thorium isn't able to fission as is. The Thorium-232 (²³²Th) must be irradiated with neutrons say from a nuclear reactor. The ²³²Th which you get from the ground captures a neutron and becomes ²³³Th. Intensely radioactive with a half-life of around 21 minutes. It decays by emitting an electron, called beta decay or β- decay. It is then Protactinum-233, ²³³Pa, half-life around 27 days, which also beta decays into this time Uranium-233, ²³³U, which _can_ be used in a nuclear reactor directly as fuel. People say that the Thorium fuel cycle doesn't produce nuclear waste. This not true, and in fact the MSRE required a 120 million dollar clean up. What is true is that it produces very little "transuranics" like plutonium, unlike Uranium-235 (²³⁵U) and the Plutonium-239 (²³⁹Pu) burning reactors common today. ²³⁵U if it absorbs a neutron will usually split. But occasionally it will "relax" and lose its excited state and then you have ²³⁶U. Actually it isn't rare, over 15% of the time this happens. It doesn't fission in a typical nuclear reactor. Similar things happened with plutonium. And these things keep absorbing neutrons but rarely fission. So they tend to accumulate the more you try to burn up the fuel. Generally referred to as transuranics. Fisson products (the leftovers of an atom splitting) are mostly intensely radioactive. But that means they lose that radioactivity fairly quickly. For the most part next to nothing after a few thousand years. Transuranics however often have half lives measured in the tens, hundreds of thousands or even millions of years. Meaning that yes this radiation won't be so intense, but it's still quite dangerous especially if it ends up inside of you. They make up the most significant fraction of the long term radiation. Something that the thorium fuel cycle doesn't produce hardly any of. This is especially the case if the protactinium is removed reasonably promptly after irradiating the thorium. Something that was a concern the designers of the MSRE had. The MSRE although probably my favourite reactor wasn't very practical in the way some things were carried out. Usually by a heroic game of fish through a hole in the top shielding. These would need to be addressed in a version suitable for commercial use.
It's not a molten salt reactor. It's a metal cooled fast reactor. That uses molten sodium and potassium nitrates to store heat. Which by the way sounds like a *FANTASTICALLY* bad idea. Sure, let's run heat exchangers with molten sodium in one pipe and water and another, but also why stopped there? Let's run another with corrosive fused strong oxidisers such as give gunpowder its bang in one pipe and molten sodium, both at considerable temperatures, in another. Can you see the problem here? The sodium coolant is dangerous enough and has been the cause of many large scale accidents at metal cooled fast reactors. We are talking tons of the stuff. It also becomes appreciably radioactive in use by neutron absorption so a fire of it is extra bad. Let alone what would have to be a detonation if molten nitrates contact extra hot molten sodium.
Really? You spoke about all known sodium fast reactors but neglected to speak about currently operational ones in mid BRICS nations? Especially currenly commercially operational BN600 and BN800?
Looks like the cost to the planet are very well understood, and the out of pocket expenses to privateers is seen for what it is. These are the classic case of Engineers who persist with making the development of devices continue until at least a reasonably functional power supply is available to replace the problem of pollution and poisoning the environment we rely on to live.
Betwren 10/20years il be making 2.5% of comurcial profit in € its €160.000.000,+€ a day becours its a calculation of population 2022 8miljard humankind alive
Medicine study takes by pharmaceutic laws 10years we stardet procedure on time date location 02.01.2024 Rome we wil be aloud pn comurcial market by the year 2034
Thrust engine but hey we have a second gen ion engine us Elon Linda isaac im a pharmaceutical biotechnology engineer i own 200+ test animals we made a synthetic molucule called fmn its amolucule its able to be broken down by bio im wicca 37° a kind of rare free mason deutch and we gonna us it to feed humankind and al dna 99% the same as cows these dna reladet we gonna feed them al
From the derivivation of Euler's e-Pi-i sync-duration Phys-Chem cause-effect, ie the temporal ecology (=metaphysical reciprocation-recirculation potential stability) of pure-math relative-timing motion-potential, self-defining prime-cofactors resonance bonding, ..or time-timing proportioning of holographic nucleation.., this, by any other Nomenclatures is Singularity-point Lensing Circuitry of Logarithmic/Periodic picture-plane Tabulated matrices.., and is exactly what developing minds love in SiFi, why not reiterate relative-timing Actuality?
Hope is as much an illusion as hate is delusional. Looting the national reserves to "combat the terror of weapons of hate" is a simple smash and grab. Because the thermodynamical potential possibilities of Thorium etc is a measured 10⁶X over chemical oxidation, the "hopeful" actions to verify this are simply to continue developing the best practices and devices reiterativly until they exist. By example, the philosophy of the Constitution is reworked and kept up dated by the hopeful components of society, and the exploitation of ignorant denial is gradually being revealed for what it is, failed state self destruction.
So, all good news in the advancement of the sodium cooled fast reactor and the nrc accepting the permit application recently. The explanation of this reactor is appreciated as it is a about as different a reactor from a molten salt reactor as hydro power is from solar, and yet it has many desirable features that make it an important part of a nuclear power future, as well as the addition of a molten salt storage system which, until we give up on passive renewables (unlikely but desirable due to the overwhelming need, lack of, and environmental degradation caused by critical minerals and materials use in renewables), practical, gigawatt storage solutions will be needed to bear the addition of renewables to the grid. Good video, great start to the new studio.
Would be good to do a session where you delve into the Regulatory Restrictions and any progress there. Maybe RU-vidrs will be the ones providing the final pressure for change.
Great Video ! Talked to Robert Zubrin s couple of times and enjoyed talking to him ! His book is a must read..,. And Chapter 3 is about "Moon Direct" (do a computer search for details) Also the UW at Madison built and ran a He3-D Fusion machine led by Prof. Gerald L. Kulcinski ! One of the group, a geologist wrote in the PM October 2004 issue about Mining the Moon for He3 ! The Tech developed to return to the moon to stay can take US and the world to Mars and beyond-Ad Astra... tjl
One advantage seldom discussed is not using a moderator. Thermal spectrum reactors all use graphite moderators which need to be replaced every 4 years. Since the graphite is slightly radioactive because it is contaminated with radioactive fuel salt it becomes low level nuclear waste.
Though Helion's is the most practical version of fusion power, itt is still not practical. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors are by far the best bet. There is Thorium on the Earth, Moon and Mars -- enough for thousands of years. We could also vastly reduce current radioactive waste by burning it up. LFTRs can be made very small and safe. See Copenhagen Energy. Developing turbines run by supercritical CO2 also reduces size and increases efficiency. How are we going to extract He3 from the Moon? And when? Do we basically strip mine the entire surface? This would be a major tragedy -- an eyesore for eternity.
The best reactor and the safest of all CANDU reactor! Able to use Thorium fuel called Aneel! Candu is certified so no legal hickups. Stop the LWR & BWR bullshit reactors from the USA = old technology!
Listening to Jim I just got through listening to Sandy Munroe and Elon talking about America. Their conclusion is that America is nearing it's end of being a world leader of anything. Both Elon and Sandy felt this way. It is almost all over and no one is doing anything to stop it. It is like a civilizational collapse. Like what happened to Rome, Greece, & Egypt. You would think people in DC had a clue about things but apparently they do not. Maybe they don't care or something. I doubt any of these people felt the way I did upon visiting Pearl Harbor where we were brutally attacked on a Sunday morning. And these are the people we put in charge of our protection. Google doesn't care, Microsoft doesn't care. These people only care about saying we are not speaking correctly with political correctness.
Glad to see this one progressing at Point Lepreau, New Brunswick because it will not only double nuclear power production in New Brunswick but also tackle the existing waste from the CANDU reactor that already provides a lot of power to the province...
What is wrong and difficult here in our new knighted states is from years ago when anti-nuclear advocates were saying is any amount of radiation is BAD. What has been proven right now is small amounts of radiation makes ya'll healthier than no radiation. WHAT? Yes tis true people with small amounts, like thorium, make you healthier than none. I believe this paradigm will finally win America over to correct thinking but maybe not. Ignorance is rife with any thinking about unknowns.
I think Kutch is wrong about thorium blowing away. What I am sure of is a lot of thorium has large amounts of other lighter elements with it. Yes straight thorium probably won't blow away but it has a large spider silk, (lighter elements mixed with it), letting it loft away because they actually have haboobs blow dust in the Gobi Desert. So it will be depleted over time if stored too dry mixed with junk.
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. 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.
The reason this isn't happening is because the people making money off oil and coal don't want to give up their profits. Everyone will have a roll to play but the profits will change.
