#molten salt reactors

[ianmiller42]

We Write Reports on CO2 Removal, But Fail to Remove Much

There has been a report issued on the state of carbon dioxide removal (http://ianmillerblog.files.wordpress.com/2024/06/c57f5-the-state-of-carbon-dioxide-removal-2edition.pdf) that paints a rather gloomy picture. A large number of countries pledged in the Paris Agreement to reduce emissions of CO2. So far, what has actually happened is the total is increasing. This report has given up on the 1.5…

[lennyinlordran]

Note to people writing alien invasion storylines; if you think aliens need a reason to try and conquer our planet, here’s a few reasons;

Earth has plenty of uranium and thorium in it’s crust; along with fossil fuels that can’t be found in space or on other planets.

A thing sci-fi writers tend to forget is that rare metals are actually pretty common on an interplanetary or interstellar scale; arable land isn’t.

Earth’s pressurized atmosphere and gravity are themselves resources; the aliens may well want to conquer the planet for space to grow crops or livestock.

Expanding on the first point; Metals are pretty common in asteroids; earth has a lot of silica, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine, boron, etc that aren’t common in asteroids;

Note; this list assumes the would-be-invaders have biochemistry mostly compatible with earth’s, and that they are economically-minded enough not to bother with conquering a place unless there’s money in it; we’re also assuming they can’t/won’t terraform somewhere else, and that “mining for money” is still something they do.

[theresilientphilosopher]

Discover how thorium nuclear technology could revolutionize energy for AI and reshape the landscape of sustainable leadership.

[dleondantes]

Discover how thorium nuclear technology could revolutionize energy for AI and reshape the landscape of sustainable leadership.

[mikeo56]

China's "Deep Seek" (AI Chat) and The Thorium Molten Salt Reactor

Me -

Why do you think is China able to develop this technology when the US was the first to use it and the US seems to be unable to escape legacy money, political stagnation and regulatory ignorance to proceed with Thorium molten salt reactor technology?

Deep Seek -

China's ability to advance thorium molten salt reactor (MSR) technology, while the United States—despite its early pioneering work at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)—has struggled to make significant progress, can be attributed to a combination of factors. These include differences in political will, funding priorities, regulatory environments, and long-term strategic planning. Here's an analysis of why China has been able to move forward with this technology:

1. Strong Political Will and Strategic Vision

Long-Term Energy Strategy: China views thorium MSR technology as a key component of its long-term energy strategy, aimed at reducing reliance on fossil fuels, improving energy security, and addressing air pollution. The Chinese government has made significant investments in nuclear energy research and development as part of its broader goals for sustainable development and carbon neutrality by 2060.

Centralized Decision-Making: China's political system allows for centralized decision-making, enabling rapid allocation of resources and streamlined approval processes for large-scale projects like the thorium MSR. This contrasts with the more fragmented and politically contentious environment in the U.S.

2. Substantial Investment in Research and Development

Funding Commitment: China has allocated substantial funding to its thorium MSR program, led by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP). This financial support has enabled the construction of experimental reactors, the development of advanced materials, and the training of a skilled workforce.

Focus on Innovation: China has prioritized innovation in nuclear technology as part of its broader push to become a global leader in high-tech industries. This focus has driven progress in areas such as molten salt chemistry, corrosion-resistant materials, and reactor design.

3. Regulatory Flexibility

Adaptive Regulatory Framework: While China maintains strict safety standards, its regulatory environment is more flexible compared to the U.S., allowing for faster approval and implementation of experimental projects. This flexibility is crucial for advancing cutting-edge technologies like thorium MSRs.

Government Support for Prototyping: The Chinese government actively supports the construction of prototype reactors, such as the TMSR-LF1, which serves as a testbed for developing and refining the technology.

4. Learning from Global Knowledge

Building on ORNL's Legacy: China has extensively studied the work done at ORNL during the 1960s and 1970s, using this knowledge as a foundation for its own research. By building on this legacy, China has been able to avoid some of the initial challenges and accelerate its development efforts.

International Collaboration: China collaborates with international experts and institutions to share knowledge and best practices, further enhancing its capabilities in MSR technology.

5. Challenges in the U.S.

Legacy of Light-Water Reactors: The U.S. nuclear industry is heavily invested in light-water reactor (LWR) technology, which has dominated the market for decades. This legacy infrastructure creates inertia, making it difficult to shift focus to alternative technologies like thorium MSRs.

Regulatory and Political Challenges: The U.S. regulatory environment is often seen as risk-averse and slow-moving, particularly for innovative nuclear technologies. Additionally, political polarization and short-term thinking have hindered the development of a cohesive long-term energy strategy.

Funding Limitations: While the U.S. has funded research into advanced nuclear technologies, the level of investment has been inconsistent and often insufficient to support large-scale demonstration projects.

6. China's Focus on Energy Independence

Thorium as a Domestic Resource: China has significant thorium reserves, making the development of thorium MSRs an attractive option for enhancing energy independence. This contrasts with the U.S., which has abundant natural gas and other energy resources, reducing the urgency to pursue alternative nuclear technologies.

Reducing Fossil Fuel Dependence: China's heavy reliance on coal and its associated environmental challenges have driven the country to explore cleaner energy options, including advanced nuclear reactors.

Conclusion

China's progress in thorium molten salt reactor technology can be attributed to its strong political will, substantial investment in R&D, flexible regulatory environment, and strategic focus on energy independence. In contrast, the U.S. faces challenges related to legacy infrastructure, regulatory inertia, and political stagnation, which have slowed progress in this field. However, the U.S. still has the potential to reclaim leadership in advanced nuclear technology if it can address these barriers and prioritize long-term innovation. The global development of thorium MSRs benefits from international collaboration and knowledge sharing, which will be essential for overcoming technical and safety challenges in the years to come.

[nuclearsciencelover]

MSR refueling

[newsepick]

Google backs new nuclear plants to power AI

Google is partnering with nuclear startup Kairos Power to construct seven small nuclear reactors in the U.S., a groundbreaking deal aimed at supporting the company's growing energy needs for AI and promoting a nuclear revival. The agreement, which includes a commitment to purchase 500 megawatts of power, marks the first commercial initiative for small modular reactors in the U.S. Kairos plans to deliver the reactors between 2030 and 2035, using molten fluoride salt instead of water as a coolant. This partnership addresses the demand for stable, carbon-free energy in the tech industry.

[electronalytics]

Molten Salt Reactor

[trainsgenderfoxgirl2816]

Nuclear reactors don't explode they undergo thermal runaway which causes them to melt the pressurized water pipes that carry away the heat to a heat exchanger that's why molten salt reactors are an idea because instead of pressurized water pipes you have molten salt pipes which won't explode of melted

A Nuclear reactor is just a fancy steam engine that uses fission instead fire and the part that explodes is a boiler it's literally the steam mechanism by which Locomotive boilers fail where the crown sheet gets too hot melts out a hole and the boiler turns into a steam powered trebuchet

I used to think gender critical meant someone's gender was like a nuclear reactor about to explode

[literallymechanical]

Breeding blankets for fusion reactors

So, barring a few ambitious projects involving helium-3, fusion reactor power plants will use hydrogen isotopes as fuel: a 50/50 mixture of deuterium (hydrogen-2) and tritium (hydrogen-3). Deuterium is very stable and relatively abundant, as far as these things go, and can be extracted from ordinary seawater.  Tritium, however, has a half life of just over 12 years, so it doesn't occur in nature.

Fortunately, you can use your fusion reactor to synthesize its own tritium fuel, via the transmutation of lithium-6. You use the powerful neutron flux from the fusion plasma to “breed” tritium in lithium, extract it, then feed it back into the reactor. The figure of merit for this process is the tritium breeding ratio (TBR), which is simply the ratio of tritium bred to tritium used. The goal is to get a TBR substantially greater than 1.

This figure shows the physics of tritium breeding, where neutrons from the deuterium-tritium fusion plasma are absorbed by lithium, which then splits into helium and tritium. [source]

Generally speaking, most concepts for tritium breeding involve wrapping a lithium “breeding blanket” around the outside of the reactor, with as few gaps as you can manage. A deuterium-tritium reactor is constantly generating fast neutrons. You want to keep as much of that emission as possible inside the breeding blanket, for both tritium and power generation.

There are a few different ideas for breeding blanket designs, several of which are going to be tested on ITER, the massive reactor being built in France. One concept is a thick sheath of lithium ceramic that surrounds the vessel, either as solid slabs or pebbles.  As tritium breeding occurs under the blanket, water or liquid helium is circulated through it, cooling the lithium and potentially extracting heat for electricity generation.

While such a blanket might be relatively “simple” (lol) to build, there are some pretty fundamental challenges. Neutrons will penetrate most materials with ease, and it might be tricky to extract tritium that's been bred deep inside of solid lithium.  Ideally, you could do the extraction without pause, even as breeding is ongoing. For some designs, though, you have to cycle out breeder units for harvesting as they get a full load of tritium.

Another concept is “liquid breeding." This concept uses a molten mixture of metallic lithium and lead, or a lithium salt compound like FLiBe (fluorine-lithium-beryllium). The liquid would be pumped through a “breeding zone” around the vessel, where the neutron flux is thickest. The tritium will then be continuously extracted from the breeding fluid as it flows back out.  As part of the process, you can run the hot liquid through a heat exchanger, heating water to power a steam turbine. 

Liquid breeding does raise some prominent engineering challenges. Hot, molten breeding fluid will be very hard to handle – not just because of the heat, but also because you're trying to pump a massive quantity of viscous fluid into a very tight breeding zone. Moreover, molten lithium-lead might react explosively with air. If your breeding system springs a leak, you’ll have a serious mess on your hands!

It’s still unclear which of these breeding strategies will bear fruit. From conception to implementation, there are still a lot of unknowns!  Both liquid and solid breeding will be conducted in France, and a number of private fusion companies have plans to breed tritium in their machines as well.

[headcanons-phb]

Gen: this is the most over-the-top project you've ever done.

Senku, blueprinting a molten salt nuclear fission reactor: you say that so much it's lost all meaning.

[progressivepower]

Meanwhile Elon and Trump firing scientists. “Chinese scientists have successfully added fresh fuel to an operational 2-megawatt thorium molten salt reactor in the Gobi Desert. This major step advances clean energy technology, using thorium as a safer, abundant alternative to uranium. China builds on abandoned American research to lead the race toward practical molten salt reactors. #CleanEnergy

[erbiumspectrum]

Chemistry video recs, part 2

[p1]

Note: some of these are "pure" chemistry, some may be strongly related to other fields. As promised, I make fairly liberal choices on the intersection of sciences and they aren't always objective, but the videos are always chemistry-related. Enjoy!

Under 15 minutes

Growing Flowers from Transition Metal Liquid

Molten Lithium Hydride is almost the Most Powerful Reducing Agent

Making Color-Shifting Rare Earth Salts

Understanding Crystallography - Part 1: From Proteins to Crystals

Cleaning old sodium metal

Paramagnetism and Diamagnetism

Space Galaxy in the Chemistry lab. Titanium tetraiodide.

Spin in Quantum Mechanics: What Is It and Why Are Electrons Spin 1/2? Physics Basics

SOLVING the SCHRODINGER EQUATION | Quantum Physics by Parth G

All about White Phosphorus

Making Acid Rain (INDOORS) - Periodic Table of Videos

Seleninyl chloride. Best solvent for selenium and other non-metals!

Recreating the chemical traffic light reaction

Over 15 minutes

Making Cat Attractant (Nepetalactone)

Inside a Nuclear Reactor

Making ferrofluid from scratch

What causes the Pauli Exclusion Principle?

The microwave plasma mystery

Literally the whole playlist of All Chemical Elements in Order

Recreating the Briggs-Rauscher oscillating reaction

Extracting the citric acid from lemons

Complete History of the Avogadro Number

[max1461]

The PLAN originally wanted the Type 004 to be powered by a thorium molten salt reactor but the timeline doesn't seem to work out; they want to launch the 004 before 2030 and China hopes to maybe have the first commercial thorium molten salt reactor working in 2030 (and that's probably optimistic). Unfortunate because 120,000 tons displacement + EM catapults + thorium molten salt reactor would be an insane boat.

[riotshotguns]

Top five radioactive isotopes

ouuhhhh man ok so

5. polonium-210. i feel bad putting her all the way down here but it has to be done. shoutout to her for being the semiperfect poison tho

4. carbon-14 for telling me how old dinosaurs are

3. americium-241 thx for keeping me from dying in a house fire girl i love u

2. plutonium-239. shes basic but i do love her . rip to the demon core guys but i can treat her right 🩵

1. top spot goes to thorium-232 i hope ur molten salt reactors are practical and widely used soon queen i love u dearly

[mikeo56]

Safety in Nuclear Energy

Water reactors were developed first and foremost with the dual ability to create electricity and produce weapons grade material. The style and fundamental operation, construction and discussion and regulation is consumed by this deflection from what nuclear energy should have been about from day one; energy and not military parasitism and redirection of a single-minded effort and thought to develop energy. We have misused this power, dropped bombs on humanity, killed millions intentionally. We created the horrifying dread of anything nuclear to the general public, instilling decades of paranoia. If we question anything, it is can we actually break away from this crutch, called water cooled reactors and regain our minds to think rationally about nuclear energy in a way that is only for energy, safely and with a total resolve for that idea only. All of these safety efforts you mention related to water-cooled reactors does not negate the fact that there is no safe way to avoid expose of the core in a water cooled reactor, no guarantee as the water-cooled bomb and resulting expulsion of radioisotope waste into the air will always be there and that all water-cooled reactors need to be near a body of water or a river. The existence of high pressure in water-cooled reactors and the repeated failure to avoid the resulting failure of containment spewing harmful radioisotopes into the atmosphere spells one more failure of a behemoth legacy, lazy legislature supported failure.