Thorium MSRs can be built on an assembly line very much quicker and cheaply than conventional uranium reactors. A fast track to mitigating climate change
No single person can design a specificities reactor type. You need detailed knowledge over reactor physics, mechanical structors, longterm behavior of materials in contact with molten salts etc. I have added an article by admiral Rickover under whose supervision the US navy nuclear reactors were build . I think several hundreds of them.
I do not understand the emphasis on thorium reactors. The status n the sixties was that for thorium U-233 reactors to breed you need thermal neutron energies that are not available in molten salts reactors. Molten salt reactors need U-235 that can not be enriched to 95 % due to agreements on non-nuclear proliferation. the U-238 associated with the U-235 will produce plutonium with all the issues involved with isotopes with a long decay period.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/molten-salt-reactors.aspx
may be useful
Thank you
Mushtaq for your reface. Indeed a very good overview
Willem Jan
Many thanks for the various replies. Admiral Rickover’s essay seemed to me to reflect some confusion. He seems somewhat scornful of “academic” studies "The academic-reactor designer is a dilettante" But theoretical studies are needed to provide basis for design. You cannot make a reactor on the basis of trial and error. He defines the characteristics for an “academic” reactor as being:
- It is simple.
- It is small.
- It is Cheap.
- It is light.
- It can be built very quickly.
- It is very flexible in purpose ("omnibus reactor").(
- Little development is required. It will use mostly “off-the-shelf” components.
Exactly what a thorium MSR could achieve.
Thanks also for link to latest World Nuclear Association.
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