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"Tokamak" controlled fusion reactors are safe with most Yes
Nukes! For carbon free energy
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What
is "Controlled Fusion?"
"Controlled Fusion," as opposed to uncontrolled fusion, which vaporizes cities and people, is that controlled fusion uses magnetic fields to confine a high-temperature plasma of deuterium and tritium.
One way to do this is to use a "tokamak" - which is a Russian word for a device that resembles a doughnut-shaped vessel wherein a strong, helical magnetic field guides the charged particles around it. The nuclei in the plasma undergo fusion reactions that convert some of their rest mass into energy - in the same way that energy is produced by the sun. In order to overcome the mutual Coulomb repulsion experienced by the two nuclei, the plasma temperature, (T), must be extremely high - typically about 10 keV, which corresponds to about 108 K. However, the density of the plasma, n, can be relatively low at about 1020 m-3. The resulting pressure in the plasma is therefore only about one atmosphere.
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What is a Molten Salt Reactor?
A
Molten
Salt Reactor or "MSR"
is a liquid-fueled reactors that can be used for production of electricity,
actinide burning, production of hydrogen, and the production of "fissile
fuels."
Electricity production and waste "burn-down" are expected to be the primary missions for the Molten Salt Reactor.
Fissile, fertile, and fission isotopes are dissolved in a high-temperature molten fluoride salt with a very high boiling point (1,400 C) that is both the reactor fuel and the coolant. The near-atmospheric-pressure molten fuel salt flows through the reactor core.
Traditional
Molten
Salt Reactor designs have
a graphite core that results in a thermal to epithermal neutron spectrum.
In the core of the Molten Salt Reactor is where fission occurs - within the flowing molten salt which is the "fuel" and is heated to approximately 700° C., after which it flows into a primary heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to a secondary molten salt coolant. The fuel salt then flows back to the reactor core. The clean salt in the secondary heat transport system transfers the heat from the primary heat exchanger to a high-temperature Brayton cycle which converts the heat energy into electricity. The Brayton cycle may use either nitrogen or helium as a working gas.
The picture above from the Department of Energy (www.DOE.gov)
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Energy Cheaper and Cleaner than Coal Through Liquid
Fluoride Reactors
Imagine, energy that is both cheaper than coal and cleaner than coal - and can
solve more problems than just global warming.
The
Liquid
Fluoride Reactor - also
known as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor or "LFTR." is an alternative energy source that is not well known to the public.
The LFTR uses inexpensive thorium as a fuel, which is transformed to
uranium-233 and through nuclear fission, generates heat and power at a cost
far less than coal
fired power plants.
Environmental Concerns
The rising cost of energy and threat of climate change is a concern to many.
The US annually imports over $400 billion of oil from foreign suppliers - many
from countries whose governments that are not friendly to the U.S.
Global warming and climate change has been linked to melting glaciers which provides fresh water to millions of people.
Global
warming and climate change has been linked to the ice melt in both the Arctic
and Antarctic - where much of the ocean's algae is produced and provides the
foundation of the ocean's food chain.
Global warming and climate change is linked to deforestation and
desertification - causing further losses of fresh water supplies.
Global warming and climate change has been linked to declining food/crop
production.
Fisheries are collapsing - some fish such as tuna, cod, swordfish facing
extinction.
24,000 people in the US die annually from particulate emissions from coal
fired power plants.
Global Population
The global population contributes to demand on finite resources. The world's
population of almost 7 billion people is growing and leading to competition
for dwindling food, water, and energy resources that may lead to famine,
plague and eventually wars and world war.
The US and other industrialized nations' birth rates are stable and even
declining - and less than the population replacement rates. Countries that are
prosperous are more sustainable.
Global prosperity depends on energy. Carbon Free Energy and Pollution Free Power from Clean Power Generation plants and renewable energy technologies are far superior than any fossil fuel as well as nuclear (fue) better for all living things and a healthy planet. And global prosperity will thrive when Carbon Free Energy is generated from technologies that are "cheaper than coal."
Electrical
energy provides power for clean water supplies, sanitation, lighting,
refrigeration, cooking, communications, healthcare/hospitals and
schools/education. It has been shown that when a country has at least 2,000
kwh per year/per capita, that there is prosperity for the people in that
country and the population stabilizes. The U.S. generates approximately
12,000 kWh per year, per household.
Economists study the relationship between the economic damage from carbon taxes (Cap and Trade) against the economic damage done from greenhouse gas emissions and anthropogenic climate change. Raising the carbon tax too fast will damage the economy. Europe’s $50 billion Cap and Trade has not yet reversed emissions growth of greenhouse gas emissions. And, developing nations will not accept carbon taxes that limit their economic growth.
Even
global warming contrarians can support the economic benefits of energy that is
cheaper
than coal.
The Liquid
Fluoride Reactor
solves many of the problems highlighted above by:
• Generating Carbon
Free Energy and Pollution
Free Power at costs that
are "cheaper
than coal."
• Generating power with zero greenhouse gas emissions.
• Enabling populations of developing nations to afford the energy they need for sustainable growth and smaller, sustainable populations.
The
History of the Liquid
Fluoride Reactor
The Liquid
Fluoride Reactor uses inexpensive and abundant thorium as its fuel. Thorium is transformed into
uranium-233 which generates heat and power via nuclear fission.
The
thorium and uranium are dissolved in molten salt which simplifies fueling and
waste removal when compared to today's nuclear
power plants.
Environmental LFTR Advantages
1. Liquid
Fluoride Reactor generate
Carbon
Free Energy and Pollution
Free Power at costs that
are cheaper
than coal.
This would cause the closings of coal fired power plants and the end of their dumping of millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions into our atmosphere every year..... not to mention their hundreds of thousands of tons of mercury emissions they are dumping into our environment that is poisoning our planet and all living things.
2.
Liquid
Fluoride Reactor produce less hazardous waste than coal or other forms of nuclear energy and
the radioactive waste from Liquid
Fluoride Reactor lasts 1/100th the time of nuclear waste from today's
nuclear
power plants.
3. Ending the pollution from coal
fired power plants and
associated coal particulates would save 24,000 lives annually in the US and
thousands of people in China and the rest of the world.
4.
The fuel used in Liquid
Fluoride Reactor is inexhaustible and inexpensive.
One ton of thorium costs $100,000 and is enough to generate 1 GW electricity
per year - which would be all the power a city the size of San Francisco
needs.
Technical Advantages of Liquid
Fluoride Reactors:
1. have no refueling outages, with continuous automated refueling and continuous
automated waste fission product removal.
2. can change power output to satisfy electric demand, for both baseload coal
fired power plants and nuclear
power plants and replace
entirely expensive natural gas "peaker" plants.
3. operate at high temperature for 50% thermal/electrical conversion efficiency,
thus needing only half of the cooling required by today's coal
fired power plants and nuclear
power plants cooling
towers.
4. are air cooled, critical for the West and Southwest U.S. as well as many
developing countries where water is scarce.
5. have low capital costs because they do not need massive pressure vessels or
containment domes.
Because Liquid
Fluoride Reactor have compact heat exchangers and utilize
Brayton
Cycle turbines, their
cooling requirements are halved and safety is increased, when compared with
today's nuclear
power plants.
6. A new Liquid
Fluoride Reactor will cost $200 million for a 100 MW power plant which means they are
affordable.
7.
Liquid
Fluoride Reactor can also make
hydrogen
fuel for helping develop
the hydrogen economy.
8. Liquid
Fluoride Reactor is
intrinsically safe
because overheating expands the fuel salt past criticality.
Because Liquid
Fluoride Reactor fuel is not pressurized and because total loss of power or control will allow
a freeze-plug to melt, gravitationally draining all fuel salt into a dump
tray, where it cools convectively.
9. 100% of Liquid
Fluoride Reactor thorium fuel is burned, compared to 0.7% of uranium burned in today's nuclear
reactors.
10. are proliferation resistant, because their U-233 fuel also contains U-232
decay products that emit strong gamma radiation, hazardous to any bomb
builders who might somehow seize control of the power plant for the many
months necessary needed to extract uranium.
11. plutonium and other actinides remain in the salt until it is fissioned -
unlike today's solid fuel reactors, which must refuel long before these
long-lived radiotoxic elements are consumed, because of radiation and thermal
stress damage to the zirconium-encased solid fuel rods.
12. No plutonium or other fissionable material is ever isolated or transported
to or from the Liquid
Fluoride Reactor
Liquid
Fluoride Reactor
Challenges
There is almost no political awareness of the thorium/uranium fuel cycle.
James Hansen, the well-known climate scientist from NASA and Columbia professor, recommends and supports the deployment of Liquid Fluoride Reactor technology for generating "carbon free energy."
At present, there is no R&D support or funding for Liquid Fluoride Reactor.
R&D is needed now for supporting Liquid Fluoride Reactor technology.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission would need to learn Liquid Fluoride Reactor technology in order to license and regulate it.
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