Fusion Fission thorium hybrid reactor concept presentation

[Breakable]

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/The Fusion Fission Hybrid Thorium Fuel Cycle Alternative.pdf

Not much in here, but the idea itself is appealing to me.
I believe in supporting a hybrid fusion-fission concept because would make it easier to get funding for fusion research and help it morph trough the chrysalis phase of the development. Same as the EV car development was helped by the hybrid concept.
The drawback of this is that proliferation would be made easier, because neutron sources research would become more popular.
But I think this is a small drawback, because in case fusion is developed it will be used for militarization in any case,
so delaying the neutron sources research would just delay threat escalation of over-militarizing smaller rogue nations (such as NK) just for a little while.
Dealing with those issues now does not depend on energy sources, but on the worldwide political process.

[Aquariumnerd]

Breakable wrote:

https://netfiles.uiuc.edu/mragheb/www/The Fusion Fission Hybrid Thorium Fuel Cycle Alternative.pdf

Not much in here, but the idea itself is appealing to me.
I believe in supporting a hybrid fusion-fission concept because would make it easier to get funding for fusion research and help it morph trough the chrysalis phase of the development. Same as the EV car development was helped by the hybrid concept.
The drawback of this is that proliferation would be made easier, because neutron sources research would become more popular.
But I think this is a small drawback, because in case fusion is developed it will be used for militarization in any case,
so delaying the neutron sources research would just delay threat escalation of over-militarizing smaller rogue nations (such as NK) just for a little while.
Dealing with those issues now does not depend on energy sources, but on the worldwide political process.

Are you talking about nuclear bonbs. Sounds like it. The hydrogen bomb also used fission. The fision provides conditions for fusion. A chemical explosive creates a large force to smack the uranium plugs together basically. The uranium has a critical mass and undergoes fission. The huge energy output heats the hydrogen it contains ect. It was developed decades ago. I’m sure people have already considered this use of fission. But You would need a critical mass of thorium. Then you have many other issues. The fission its self would probably need tight control. For it to produce a temperature high enough for fusion, a nuclear bomb would be needed. The temperature in a nuclear reactor does not reach anything near millions of k lol.

[Breakable]

I am talking about atomic bomb, specifically the fission bomb. To develop it you usually need to have enriched uranium. Yes you can work it out using separation process, but in case neutron sources are available I think you can produce required materials (plutonium) much easier, I am not aware of the exact process though.

[jamesr]

If you have a plentyful neutron source from D-T fusion then making Pu-239 from U-238 is fairly straightforward
U-238+n -> U-239 ->Np-239 + e -> Pu-239 + e
The beta decays in the reaction chains have half lifes of days, so you have to wait for the products to build up over time, but not too long otherwise they capture more neutrons and end up as something like Pu-240 which would spoil your plans and is then just as hard to separate out as the U-235/238 problem.
Also you need LOTS of neutrons to make a useful amount of Plutonium, which then can’t be used to breed the tritium needed to sustain the fuel supply for the D-T fusion.

Th-232 being and even-even nucleus is only fissionable by fast neutrons (like U-238 only worse), and is regarded as a fertile material to breed U-233 which is fissile.
Th-232+n ->Th-233 ->Pa-233 +e -> U-233 +e

But U-233 cannot easily be made into a bomb, although it has been done a few times. You need around 16kg of pure U-233 vs only 10kg of Pu-239 for critical mass. Pure Th-232 and U-238 cannot ever reach a critical mass on their own (they capture too many neutrons, rather than fissing, so cannot sustain a chain reaction).

Breeding fissle elements via fusion neutron capture, then chemically separating them from the fertile source is easier in some regards than separating U-235 and U-238, but we are a long way from anyone having that capeability. If they can build a fusion based neutron source they can easily build a conventional one.

[Breakable]

jamesr wrote: If they can build a fusion based neutron source they can easily build a conventional one.

In any case fusion power will enable cheap manufacturing of everything including fission reactors and nuclear bombs…

[jamesr]

Breakable wrote:

If they can build a fusion based neutron source they can easily build a conventional one.

In any case fusion power will enable cheap manufacturing of everything including fission reactors and nuclear bombs…

Not really… Fusion done the ITER or NIF way will be just as expensive as current fission reactors, if not more so. They just assume by the time they get fusion working everything else will have gone up in price.

[Breakable]

jamesr wrote: Fusion done the ITER or NIF way will be just as expensive as current fission reactors, if not more so.

Great, you have just reinforced my understanding that cheaper reactor concepts will not get any government funding.

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