Posted on 03/20/2014 10:59:38 AM PDT by ckilmer
It’ll be perfectly save and won’t crash just like Microsoft windows.
Nuclear power should have never been synonymous with boiling-water reactors fueled by uranium. There are so many other good choices.
They said the pilot reactor was going to be built in China, where they are also going full-out on R & D for a Thorium reactor. And they are building coal-fired power plants like crazy.
Sure, they are environmental pigs. But they also want to develop their country. And leave us behind.
The words “nuclear” and “atomic” in any application triggers an automatic rejection by the Marxist computers..
Sorry, but Gates has only slightly more technical competence than does the Algore manbearthing.
Who gives a smelly Obama what the *%#@ that crook businessman thinks?
Clearly written by someone who is reading off a power point foil.
1) All current fission reactors use U238. It needs to be enriched to 5-10% U235 to sustain critical opperation.
2) Breeders using Sodium coolant have been tried before.
The neutron flux isn’t high enough to create Pu239 in any serious quantity.
3) If we can’t get a stupid pipeline approved, the chances are zero of getting a breeder approved.
Pretty big facility just to power his house. Running lynux?
Its helpful here to know that Norway has been testing thorium for the last year. Their test results have been leaked to several countries including the USA.
http://nuclear-news.net/2013/09/12/scandal-norways-ngo-bellona-uncovers-secret-nuclear-deals-at-the-experimental-thorium-reactor-complex-in-norway/
Its also helpful to know that Babcox and Wilcox makes the nuclear reactors for for US submarines.
Gates’ team has recently modified their reactor so that its not a traveling wave reactor but a standing wave reactor
http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/bill-gates-stops-chasing-nuclear-wave-pursues-variety-of-reactors/
That may be because his team has been showing up at thorium power events.
http://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/2013/07/23/bill-gates-nuclear-company-explores-molten-salt-reactors-thorium/
Gates wants to have prototype developed in 10 years. Hard to say where they’ll do the prototype. Might be in china.
This confluence of events may be why China pushed forward its development time of their thorium reactor as well to 10 years out. A China official quoted in this article says: “”This is definitely a race,” said Li. China “faces fierce competition from overseas and to get there first will not be an easy task”, he said.” http://www.scmp.com/news/china/article/1452011/chinese-scientists-urged-develop-new-thorium-nuclear-reactors-2024
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/finance/ambroseevans-pritchard/100026863/china-going-for-broke-on-thorium-nuclear-power-and-good-luck-to-them/
see my post above. I think that Gates team is drifting toward an lftr design.
I think he uses solar power to run his house. He’s off grid. The portable nukes he’s working on are designed for base load. That is, everyone using the grid.
agree but the people he hires are no slouches. He has the money to pull this off if he wants to.
That would be good for America. Hope it happens.
Sodium? isn’t that quite corrosive?
Well, it's reactive.
Water is corrosive. The only reason we don't realize how water is is because we're made of it.
To metallic sodium, water is so corrosive it's explosive.
But they've used molten sodium to make a few nuclear reactors. One of them underwent a partial meltdown at the Santa Susanna lab (near Los Angeles) in 1959.
“Sorry, but Gates has only slightly more technical competence than does the Algore manbearthing.
Who gives a smelly Obama what the *%#@ that crook businessman thinks?”
Bill as writing assembly language on mainframes before you were probably even born. I also don’t see you trying to solve these problems.
I’ve been following Thorium design theory.
It is interesting but I’d like to see a small scale version before going full scale.
U232 side effect generation of using Thorium is a serious gamma emitter and this has not been solved.
Killing fuel processors and reactor refueling teams would be bad.
One can imagine a closed loop liquid sodium system. Pump seals, valves, drain and fill processes.
A leak is likely a fire.
I hope this works. We need alternatives to gas fired combined cycle.
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