Bill Gates' Terrapower Project And The Traveling Wave Reactor | Answers With Joe 

We don't put hundreds of people in a steel can and fly them around, we put them in an aluminum can.

Great video Joe. I discovered you last night and have actually spent the last 8 hours catching up on your back catalogue. Some really interesting topics, keep up the good work!

Great video. However one small mistake. U238 will fission when hit with a high energy neutron as demonstrated in a H bomb. Guess what gives off high energy neutrons? Fusion reactors! U238 could be used as a secondary source of energy in a fusion power plant which would be a great way to get rid of a lot of today's waste. All we need to do is wait 30 years for a fusion power plant.

I once told my wife that if I won $1 billion in the powerball I would keep a few million and donate the rest to NASA to fund budget missions to Neptune and Pluto. She gave me a long, deep, blank stare and just shook her head in silence.

Joe needs to have his own TV show on the discovery channel

Joe you forgot the most important question. What are the radioactive waste products ??

In the 1970's I worked with people who were part of a molten salt reactor design and build project team. I was working for Combustion Engineering building refueling pools for a nuclear power generation plant. It's funny how they were so excited about this technology that would lead the way to low cost power. And now over 40 years later we are still trying to make it work in a cost effective manner.

Another great vid, crazy the energy breakthroughs that are just on the horizon.

If I had a billion dollars I would hire a finanncel adviser.

We haven't reached enough power draw for harnessing an 8 year old on chocolate. Warping space might do it. Maybe.

6:35 - Fun Fact: Elevators are actually the safest mode of transportation.

"Although I could be wrong dont quote me" DONT TELL ME WHAT TO DO!

Excellent video.

Gotta love reactors that turn turbans ;)

Finally! A positive video about Molten Salt Reactors! Great and tanks!

Your awesome joe. Im a 25 year old student and i started watching your videos about a year ago. I was going to school for architecture but recently changed my major to a science major, and still want to change it to particle physics because watching your videos has sparked an interest in me about what we dont see. Keep up the good work and let the haters hate.

I'm glad I'm not the only person that says "if money was no option" when I mean if money was no object.

I thought I'd watch one or two of your videos 12 hours or so later I haven't slept and this is by FAR my favourite RU-vid channel

There is already a use for U 238 though and that is to make weapons. No not bombs, I'm talking about Depleted Uranium ammunition or DU ammunition. The army has been equipping their tanks with "Silver Bullets" (large darts made out DU) because it's sheer mass being focused on the pointy end of a dart can penetrate almost anything when fired out the barrel of a 120mm smoothbore cannon. There are other military applications for Depleted Uranium but that will take a lot more explaining.

0:43 - Bill Gates retired as CEO of Microsoft in 2000, not 2014. He started working part time at Microsoft from 2006 on to focus on philanthropy and fully quit his day to day job at Microsoft in 2008, but he stayed on as Chairman of Microsoft until 2014. Steve Ballmer was CEO of Microsoft from 2000 - 2014.

I love watching your videos and being informed, good enriched vids of course. But out of curiosity was this video uploaded before and taken down and edited? It feels really familiar

Yes Joe, Uranium and Thorium are both easily used as fuel in a Molten Salt reactor. The major challenge right now though, is making a 100% breeder that can run on 100% fertile thorium (or u-238) without any fissile fuel (U-235), after initial startup. We lose too many free neutrons, and need to improve neutron economy. The chemistry of the salt is very important, fluoride-beryllium-lithium6 is required for better neutron economy but right now lithium6 is very hard to produce. So the best approach now is not a breeder but a molten salt uranium burner (which uses low enriched uranium), until we improve neutron economy enough to incorporate breeding. The fluid fuel aspect of molten salt is a HUGE advancement even without factoring in breeding. We dont need breeders yet, but we really need molten salt. Because then, we can easily process the spent fuel and also improve safety because we dont need to pressurise the reactor vessel and we can easily move the fuel in the event of overheating to allow passive cooling. These are huge issues with SOLID FUEL. I think most people haven't quite figured out yet that the real short term advancement is molten salt with fuel dissolved in the liquid salt. The safety aspects alone will make these reactors much safer and much cheaper!! Breeding can come after that. In fact, thorium is impractical in a solid fuel reactor. And breeding solid fuel (plutonium and u-238) is difficult! Everything depends on fluid fuel now. I didn't know Terrapower was also developing molten salt technology. Good to know, because I was really disappointed that Bill Gates was investing in Travelling wave instead of Molten Salt. Molten Salt will be far superior to travelling wave and I think travelling wave is a waste of time and will be quickly replaced. I think the company in Canada called Terrestrial Energy has a better approach and design! Nuclear Fission is required to move to the next step of technological advancement! I am very excited about this technology! Check out a channel on here named "gordonmcdowell", it is a great resource for this topic :)

Great video. I have something to tell you that you may find interesting and most notably scary. When I was much younger, not out of highschool I held a small amount of powered uranium in my hand. Well sort of, it was in a old glass babyfood jar. My dad had collected this at some point in her early 20's when he had worked in the local uranium mine. For many years it had sat on a shelf in our old abandoned house. At this time I didn't know anything about uranium, but the thing I will never forget is that the glass of the babyjar I was holding felt like it was bubbling. I only held it for maybe 2 seconds before my dad took it back from me. As for what happened to this jar of powered uranium, well my dad buried it somewhere and never told anyone where. I would never do anything like this now after fully understanding the nature of uranium, but back in the late 70's it was different.

2:46 HOLY SHIT FACTORIO IS ACCURATE?!

I think I started watching you at around 5000 viewers(subscribers actually)... I love what you’ve done since then! I also love your ads... as a life long learner and someone who feels the current educational system is antiquated at best, I love that you partner with learning sites... Im going to try this one... not to support you if I may say so but I hope it does. Im signing up to understand what the future must become. You are a large part of making the future better through edutainment... love it!

Bill Gates should open up a brewery. I'd drink his Imperial Nitro Nuclear Green IPA.

Minor correction: he retired as Microsoft CEO around 2000 (replaced by Steve Ballmer). 2014 would be when he stopped being chairman of the board.

Fascinating technology. Thanks for bringing it to us. Love the channel, subbed recently.

I heard about a company that grown algae in vats of sea water then turns it into fuel. that has to have potential surely?

So from the reading/watching/sponging I've done with regard to the liquid salt reactors (either using fast spectrum breeder reactors with U-238 or thermal spectrum Thorium... "Why aren't we funding this?!" (And yes I realize we are...starting to...humans I mean, mostly China and India. We as in the USofA seem to have tied our shoes together on this one.) I personally wouldn't detract from the use of either U-238 or Thorium as a liquid salt reactor fuel...but I do kind of like the fact that Thorium requires no processing...has proven reactor technology built by Oak Ridge Labs in the 1960's...naturally yields medical isotopes in the decay process. But I suppoise either fuel is still a vast improvement over solid fuel reactors as "spent fuel" isn't actually spent...its just swelled and fractured its pellets so they dont fit the rods any more. Liquid fuel allows for the full consumption of the fuel...and whatever else you pump into the mix...like say...other waste. ...WHY AREN'T WE FUNDING THIS!?!?

Can i invest in this company? Is it on the stock exchange? Btw. Great video Joe!

With that much money I’d focus on soil preservation, water preservation and the future of agriculture. The future of farming is up in the air. Soil erosion is happening at alarming rates. Farms then have to shut down. We then build giant subdivisions on these dead fields. Nothing grows without transporting tonnes of soil in.

Hi Joe. I've had this idea for a long time, but don't know if it could work. I'll explain it very simple. There's a dam, one side you've got air, the other side is water. Now invision you put a buoy/balloon on the lowest point thru a tunnel with a lock. The balloon goes into the lock, it's pressurised to the high pressure of the water on the other side. The lock goes open, en the balloon comes out in the water side and goes up. Now see this happening with the balloons on a cable that goes around the dam. In the water it's pulled because it's lighter than water. When it's above the water it goes back down over the dam and the balloon is heavier than air. So it all keeps going in a circle. Then a generator on top, and you've got energy from all the potential energy(not from nothing). I know it sounds like free energy and should not be possible. I've made sketshes, and it all looks ok. But still I don't believe it could work. What do you think? Greetings. NicoD

"Nuclear is a topic that tends to split a room" lol

#therewillbeorgies

How quickly can a traveling-wave reactor throttle to match grid's demand?

what happens to the used fuel of the traveling wave reactor? I guess that's still radioactive waste ? isn't it?

Hi joe... Happy monday!!

Joe you haven't looked into this quite enough. The animation you showed is an old concept(it's too hard to keep such a narrow, moving section of reactor core cooled enough) now they are going to have an automated robotic system inside the sealed reactor reshuffling fuel rods nearly constantly, so the wave doesn't go from one side of the core to the other, but instead is constantly bouncing around, more efficiently breeding and then burning as much u238 as possible. The system can supposedly run for 40 years without opening it up, at which point, the computer would have retained a small amount of fissile material in one section of the core, the fission product laden fuel rods would be chucked (or reprocessed, idk this is at least 40 years down the pipe) and new, relatively inert u238 fuel rods would be replaced, and then the computer would use the small number of old rods to kickstart the next 40 year cycle, essentially needing no more enrichment once the system is going.

The "traveling wave" reactor is just their branded product and not an actual description of how TerraPower's current reactor would work. To implement an actual reactor where the wave moves, the reactor's cooling system would need follow the wave through the reactor. TerraPower long ago realized this issue and abandoned the “traveling wave” concept and adopted what could be called a “standing wave” reactor.

Great video!

I knew from the beginning that following you would help me discover all of these things that next to nobody else talks about, and that’s why I follow you so passionately and why I share your vids wherever I can. Average “Joe”s are not average. Average “Joe”s are the meat and potatoes of the population that can make the world a completely different place. Did u get the average joe thing? It’s because his name is....Joe....okay I’m leaving now. Thanks a lot, Joe. See you next video, and happy Monday. :~]

China and India allready have 100's of engineers working on liquid salt reactors, and the idea exists from the 1960's... Thanks to Gordon McDowell on his channel on this subject.

Have you ever done a video on how to improve our energy transportation efficiency? Like going from our current power lines to sapphire wires?

Hahaha the way he smash fusion hope is funny

Hey joe I know you know this but if you could the next time while mentioning salt reactors the reason we have not switched already is because they have not fixed the corrosion problem. Or yes that would be a great conversion for fission reactors. Anyways loved the video.

3:10 Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium. Wow!

It's important to point out that fusion is not a perfect energy source. Fusion has several obstacles that need to be overcome before it quickly outpaces all other forms of power. It requires a lot of frontload energy to maintain the reaction, so a significant percentage of the power a fusion reactor generates will be used to power the reactor. Also, the reaction itself scatters neutrons in all directions which collide with the reactor walls, breaking them down and irradiating them, requiring a lot of maintenance and producing waste. The waste created is also weaponizable as it's just a matter of exposing U 238 to the neutron scatter to create Pu 239. That said, since fusion reactors use d-t, the weaponizing would be patently obvious to even an undergrad in chemistry. So it's easy to weaponize the reactor, but also very obvious that that's what's being done, as opposed to a fission reactor which is already using uranium as the primary fuel source. So, requires a lot of energy upfront, sprays hazardous neutron everywhere and requires waste management and maintenance, and the reactor needs to be monitored so that it isn't weaponized. But we get a safe, clean, baseload power source that outpaces all other power sources on the planet. The d-t fusion reaction will create around four times the energy that a standard fission reaction will create simply because the hydrogen isotopes are far less massive than uranium is. Instead of a mass of 235, the fuel has a mass of 5, meaning the energy produced by fusion requires 47 times less mass than fission to generate, and the energy produced is not 47 times less.

I have one more comment Joe and sorry for doing this on a video that i so so enjoyed. Keep it up and never give in to the LOUD ASS HATERS. YOU'RE an inspiration to people who arent in a science profession and still love science. YOUR videos always make me love science even when i was designing buildings. Thank you for YOUR contribution to creativity and looking to the stars. YOU'RE a truely informational and intellectual prosperity to the world.

I really like the biofuels being produced from algae. A friend of mine has the rudementary design for a system that can produce diesel and kerosene from the same system. Not very efficient design yet but it's just in the beginning of planning.

Plutonium breeders are fast spectrum whereas Thorium breeders are thermal spectrum. This refers to the neutron energy and capture cross-section. These are structurally different and not interchangeable - thermal breeders have to be moderated with water (extreme pressure danger) or graphite as in liquid salt reactors. Remove the moderator and the reaction quenches.

If I had a billion dollars I would open that mint-in-box Luke Skywalker behind you and play with it. 😀

This is something I've never heard of before, but since I am an advocate of Thorium, I'd love to see this become a reality. I support Thorium not because it's an ideology. I support it because it's the fastest, safest way to get a clean grid. So, if the travelling wave reactor achieves that as well, then it has my full support. The fact that Bill Gates is behind this makes me really happy as well. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is an awesome organization and if anybody can make fission-based clean power a thing, I'm willing to bet they are the ones who will do it. Thanks for the awesome content, Joe!

Ok, I am a nerd, I love thinking about random things... I love this... making me binge watch you... But even better I am hoping to get to meet you at VMW in Dallas. Im a photographer and will be taking tons of epic images and would love to grab a few of you!

Love your talks!!! Thank you for all the knowledge you're spreading. Sidenote- is there away to lower the background music. It's nice but a little distracting.

First heard about this years ago then nothing. Glad to hear it's still in the works.

You said early on in the video that 99% of the uranium dug up goes to waste, since it's the less useful 238 isotope. It's not quite that bad. Sources I can find suggest you need 3.5-5% 235 with the rest being 238. So, per 1,000 tons uranium mined you have 7 tons, at .7% 235 with the rest 238, so ~140 tons of usable fuel would be a reasonable number. Which amounts to about 85% wasted. :) Still quite a lot, to be fair. That also doesn't take away from how cool travelling wave reactors could be

I love the idea that one day, the world's greatest uranium mine will be... Yucca Mountain.

The Soviet Alfa Class fast attack submarine used a molten salt reactor. It defo worked, but it also had its issues. The Soviets did not use the design in more modern designs.

Love staring out my day with some elevated information. You're definitely my favorite source of science information at the moment. Love your videos. Keep em' comin'.

Do them all, lftr, twr and mcfr and expand on them all, they all have benefits in scalability and proliferation along with exploring different directions will expand our minds. Great show

Couple of things I'd do with a billion dollars 1) start a school aimed at (but not exclusively for) boys. With longer days, longer school years, more physical activity, more hands on activity and no home work (other than reading or studying). 2) groceries stores for "food deserts" which would provide cheaper food and a free transportation back home.

Traveling wave reactor? It's name is kovarex enrichment process XD

This is one of your best videos of all time

If I had a billion dollars, I will build a non-profit organization for Football World cups cuz FIFA is shady as hell for a non-profit organization having a billion dollar in reserve..

Hi Joe, Great coverage. If you're interested in more way out suggestions for power generation, then another less known one is the atmospheric vertex engine. It has both power generation and cooling applications. (The latter can be associated with any current power source and boost its efficiency). Unfortunately, the scale modelling worked, i believe, only once or twice and never at the scales that something could've been done with it. But the very thought of tamed tornadoes is just super cool at some level!

just a slight correction. when you talked about the uranium we use for energy. you said we use the U-235 and dont use the U-238. this is incorrect because the fuel for reactors is about 5% U-235 and 95% U-238. Not to mention nuclear weapons need drastically higher concentration of U-235. that said getting from .7% to 5% U-235 will leave behind large amounts of unused U-238.

Over 200K! Yeah!

Nice video but a little topical. I suppose the TWR could use a deeper dive. I will have to look for it somewhere else.

Theres more chance of concorde crashing through my bedroom window, today, than Jeff Bezos transforming humanity with a rocket rich people take rides on.

That's awesome. When I've learned about Thorium and molten salt reactors I was convinced. I'm actually pro nuclear fision, I just don't like the current unefficient way to do it. Please Bill Gates, we need people like you. :3

all early reactors were designed to create weapon grade material for each countries nuclear weapons, the fact they produced electricity was a great smoke screen for the public. this travelling wave reactor has so much less waste than previous gen reactors, as they burn the plutonium. the previous gen reactors made plutonium to be extracted for weapons and that process created the waste

Hi Joe, can you please tell us about thorium next episode?

The "Traveling Wave Reactor" has not existed for at least 5 years. They couldn't get the burn-up or the flow to all areas of the core. It was changed to a standard SFR with a large space in the RV to store extra bed and used fuel for 40 years, but still just a standard SFR.

1. Airplanes are not made of 300 tons of steel. 2. Plutonium has a rather long half life

I used to think about using molten glass to cool reactors. Make high temperature Glass pods with individual control rod arrangements that could shut off by radio control and removed easily.

Don't forget Thorium nuclear reactors.

If I had a billion dollars I'd transform humanity through shade balls.

Ultimately the question is 'what is the cost'. The main issue with new nuclear is that regulation means that any new technology costs a lot to be tested and get approved. (hence the need for a billion dollars). The problem is that solar is now cheaper than traditional nuclear and soon solar plus batteries will be cheaper than nuclear and thats WITH all the subsidies nuclear receives. If we take away subsidies, then solar plus batteries is already cheaper.

I used to work in the nuclear power industry. Though it was only for one year. And I was a student doing a placement year between my second and third years of university. I was kinda dismayed really. Not long after I was working for the nuclear company I was at, it ended up getting into financial trouble and being sold off. But before that they seem to have been getting rid of all their technical staff (with half the staff being contractors - they would've employed more contractors but how they would've had any control when technically they didn't employ anyone loyal to the interests of the company working for them I don't know?). There was a huge portion of the building I was working that was blocked off from all the other employees, which had all the super advanced computers operated by people on high salaries... to play the stock market - and that's how they went out of business. I felt I understood how nuclear disasters happen - it's because in the short term they are cheaper and more profitable (however abstractly you want to define that in terms of economics). But worse than money was all the politics. Y'know, while you're young you can have all these star trek fantasies - yeh, by all means be inspired by star trek, but play closer attention to the Klingons because chances are you'll be working for them.

Nicely said Joe Scott! Terrapower nuclear waste to nuclear fuel FTW

Please check the Bloom Energy system. It's a different Energy source.

Wow, TerraPower lost me at "building relationships with [...] the government of China." I'm no screaming conservative or anything (quite the opposite actually), but I'm still not down with sharing this kind of revolutionary technology with an authoritarian government.

Does this technology still have waste disposal and plant decommissioning issues associated with nuclear?

pelmus wave in scotland was doing a brilliant job creating electricity from the action of the waves.

4:14 "And maybe we'll figure out fusion by then." You optimist ;) Thank you for brinigng this venture to our attention, I had not heard of this idea. Another great video. Regarding the issue of nuclear waste with traditional reactors, I had read some time back of an experiment that converted reactor waste into 'batteries' (I think it was compressed and heated into a crystal solid) that would supply a small charge for centuries. It sounded like that solution may require several nuclear plants to power it, but was curious if you had seen it and what you thought of it as a possible cleanup method, perhaps once we have more abundant energy to power the process. If you have a video on it already, very sorry.

If I had a billion dollars I'd build a doomsday device and use it.

FYI: thorium reactors will be by definition breeder reactors, as the Th232 cycle is very comparable with the U238 cycle. Th232 is not fissile, it is fertile. By neutron capture it becomese Th233, which decays to Pa233 and which then decays to the fissile U233, which compares to U238 capturing a neutron and becoming in that way U239, decaying to Np239,decaying to Pu239. Even the half life times are very comparable.

It’s an interesting reaction; however I am wondering about the lack of commentary around the final product which seems to be Plutonium...

This has a lot of potential. Solar power plant use molten sodium as a way to store heat for cloudy day and to provide power at night. Also the travilng wave reactor could be can excellent heat source of they can get the fuel mix right. The hard part will be mixing the fuel so they have a continuous even propagation of decay.

Carbon battery technology may be one useful direction on how to change how we store energy. The one drawback is that a typical carbon based battery is 2 or 3 X the size of more conventional metals based batteries. However, there is no environmental risk to using them. And C is ubiquitous. The main idea would be to store energy off-peak and then use it on-peak to lessen the peak electrical grid requirements. Useful for businesses where peak prices are much higher than non-peak grid prices. Enjoy your videos Joe! Keep up the energy!

Please do a video on Pepe Silvia!!!

10% church, 30% education, 30% charity, 30% for family members and my stuff. I plan on living simple, being active and being of service.

All the positive things you said about TWR are also true for gen3 reactors. It’s more important to change public opinion about nuclear than to develop new tech. People are still scared of flying even though it’s the safest - people are still scared of nuclear even though it’s the safest. P.S. source for your nuclear waste photo? Edit: typo

I saw the Bill Gates TED talk on this a few years ago - completely forgotten about it - thanks for reminding me of it.

Look up: Dual Fluid Reactor

If I had a billion dollars and my name were Bill Gates, I'd probably order a billion gates. Not big gates, just tiny scale gates xD

Great stuff, and I watched the Bill Gates TED talk, but that was 8 1/2 years ago. Could we have an update on any meaningful progress since then?

Hi Joe, are you regrowing your beard to stay ‘on brand’ ? I suggest you get a clip-on one, especially for the warmer weather:-) Interesting video, many thanks. Keep up the good work!

Hey Joe! Watching your shows. I enjoy watching your shows. As well, I notice your videos are divided up into paragraphs, and inserted bits. Thinking of building my own shows and are watching these and wondering if this contributes to the interest along with supporting pics. etc. I would appreciate a show, highlighting how you produce these. Thanks.