TAP reactor burns low grade fuel

[DocM]

Advantage: uses low enrichment fuel, can burn the waste from other reactors, is passively safe and costs about 1/2 as much to build per gigawatt.

The biggest problem is that the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission has poor procedures for certifying innovative designs like TAP, which is why they're being done overseas.

http://i.phys.org/news/2014-06-molten-salt-reactor-concept-transatomic.html

Molten salt reactor concept has new Transatomic Power lift

Transatomic Power has been in the news this month in its ambition to build a better reactor. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Transatomic Power has proposed a safer reactor that "eats nuclear waste," as Bloomberg.com put it. The company sees potential in an innovative nuclear reactor that can turn nuclear waste into a safe, clean, and scalable source of electricity. A detailed report on their company goals in IEEE Spectrum described how cofounders Leslie Dewan, now Chief Science Officer, and Mark Massie, Chief Technology Officer, thought of the idea in 2010, while working on their PhDs in nuclear engineering at MIT; namely, they were thinking of a better reactor addressing the nuclear industry's big headaches, waste and safety.

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What's new here? They said Transatomic Power improved the molten salt concept, while retaining its safety benefits.

"The main technical change we make is to change the moderator and fuel salt used in previous molten salt reactors to a zirconium hydride moderator, with a LiF-based fuel salt. During operation the fuel in the salt is primarily uranium. Together, these components generate a neutron spectrum that allows the reactor to run using fresh uranium fuel with enrichment levels as low as 1.8% U-235, or using the entire actinide component of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Previous molten salt reactors such as the ORNL Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) relied on high-enriched uranium, with 33% U-235. Enrichments that high would raise proliferation concerns if used in commercial nuclear power plants."

Dewan said their reactor would be "walk-away safe," according to IEEE Spectrum. "If you don't have electric power, or if you don't have any operators on site, the reactor will just coast to a stop, and the salt will freeze solid in the course of a few hours," she said. Eric Roston, sustainability editor for Bloomberg.com, discussed more advantages. "Molten salt reactors can tap more energy in fuel and use it for decades, compared with four or five years in reactors today. That means they need less enriched uranium, reducing the risk of fuel being stolen to make bombs. Transatomic's reactor would cost half as much per gigawatt of electricity as conventional reactors, Dewan says."

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[IsItPluggedIn]

So effectively they have just removed all of the issues with nuclear power plants, can we start building these things now. Get a working test going, then roll them out. I know a whole bunch of free space they can use to test them. Middle of my country. 

 

Although I feel we should be designing systems which dont run on a steam powered generator. This is much better than what they are using right now, coal and Gas. 

[DocM]

Higher energy reactors don't have to use water in the hot side of the heat exchanger, liquid metals or salts are fine, but water really is safest for use in the turbogenerators.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Molten salt reactors are cool, but running off waste or low enriched fuel isn't anything new, the CANDU design can already use that type of fuel.

 

The issue isn't so much the designs, it's not building new designs, we're stuck on decade old variants currently.

[DocM]

CANDU us very capable, but molten salt reactors are mechanically simpler and passively safe. It doesn't get much simpler a salt plug melting if the reactor goes hot, then the reaction mass draining into several subcritical masses stored in tanks. OTOH- control rods can jam, and have done so numerous times.

[malenfant]

Decades and tens of Billions away at best I think. China and India have programmes with salt cooled reactors if memory serves -not Weinbergs homogenous type.

Now Lawrence Livermores SSTAR... My current favorite ;^)

In other news. Solar Roadways - jeez -over $2M in funding so far. Focus Fusion will be lucky to raise the $200K for their DPF proof of concept which at least has scientific merit. Solar Roadways?! Are these people high?

[DocM]

China accelerated their program and now plans to open their pilot molten salt core reactor next year. If all goes well they plan to be cranking them out like sausages within 10 years.