Reply To: turn heat into electricity

[dennisp]

Zapkitty: How is the situation you describe any different than it’s been for the entire history of fission reactors, and the demonstrated safety record they’ve already achieved despite using technologies with far less inherent safety than what’s available now?

And LFTR would be superior to today’s technology. The fuel is an inert molten salt. If a pipe leaks, it just drips out and solidifies, nicely containing the radioactive stuff. The whole thing operates at atmospheric pressure, so that fuel will just drip, not spray. There’s no water, so there won’t be any source of the hydrogen that made the Fukushima building explode.

If the fuel starts to overheat, it expands and slows the reaction enough to stay in the proper temperature range. If it somehow gets too hot anyway, or the electricity fails, a frozen plug melts and all the fuel drains into a passive cooling tank. At one of the LFTR experimental reactors, that’s how they turned the reactor off for the weekend…just cut the power and went home.

It’s not as good as FF but in case we don’t achieve fusion, it’s probably our best shot at an energy-rich, carbon-free society. It’s nice to have backup plans.