Thorium presentation

[Breakable]

An excellent presentation of thorium approach basics on ted-x,
while does not have much in-depth information it could be used as a model for presenting focus fusion

[Henning]

Not bad, but for my taste it’s too much of “If we have free energy, we can do so much stuff”, i.e. separation of hydrogen and oxygen.

Anyway, I thought the main problem of molten salt reactors are the corrosion of pipes. Anybody a different opinion?

[Breakable]

Also secondary loop reduces the efficiency,
gamma radiation shielding makes reactor human-unservisable,
also I am not sure if enough breeding (neutron source) material is available to start this approach on a large scale.

[jamesr]

As with most things – I think the devil is in the detail. Molten salt reactors would be great but even with the latest Gen IV designs there are still a number of serious engineering challenges to overcome.

From the 2002 original gen IV roadmap http://nuclear.energy.gov/genIV/documents/gen_iv_roadmap.pdf

The MSR has a number of technical viability issues that need to be resolved. The highest priority issues include molten salt chemistry, solubility of actinides and lanthanides in the fuel, compatibility of irradiated molten salt fuel with structural materials and graphite, and metal clustering in heat exchangers. Specific areas of this viability research phase include:

• Solubility of minor actinides and lanthanides in molten fluoride salt fuel for actinide management with high actinide concentrations
• Lifetime behavior of the molten salt fuel chemistry, and fuel processing during operation and eventual disposal in a final waste form
• Materials compatibility with both fresh and irradiated molten salt fuel for higher temperature applications
• Metal clustering (noble metals plate-out on of the heat exchanger primary wall)
• Salt processing, separation, and reprocessing technology development, including a simplification of the flowsheet.

I have yet to see if any of these issues has been solved.

[Matt M]

Reprocessing and extracting gases and waste from the liquid has never been done before on a commercial
scale. It will take several billion dollars to set up the process.

The bigger problem is actually the Business Model.

Currently, nuclear providers sell machined fuel rods in perpituity which creates an ongoing
revenue stream. Thorium fuel is just refined chemicals. It won’t be machined and could be
purchased from the lowest cost provider. So, the industry will be losing revenues if they
move to MSLF reactors.

[Author]

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