Well, mostly the problem is that the solution for electric generation was found and not wanted..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Integral_fast_reactor
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Maybe. What’s getting all the press right now are the liquid floride thorium reactors and the molten salt reactors. Bill Gates himself through his company called Terrapower is working on a traveling wave design. (don’t ask me what that means.)
“Bill Gates himself through his company called Terrapower is working on a traveling wave design. (don’t ask me what that means.)”
Traveling wave refers to moving the point of reaction down the length of a fuel rod, like burning an incense stick. Originally, they planned to move along the length of a fixed rod, but now they are looking more at feeding the rod through a fixed point.
The beauty of this design, is that it consumes the “spent” fuel rods that have been accumulating as radioactive waste from our existing reactors. There is already enough of this waste to burn for hundreds of years. The traveling wave design burns it very efficiently and completely - down to a dramatically lower level of radioactivity (pretty safe).
It just makes sense from a business perspective to outsource your costs, so the more Bill Gates can get the federal government to pay the R&D costs, the greater his profit margin.
Also, the long pole in the tent is getting regulatory approval for your design. Having FedGov buy-in to a design would help a lot getting down the critical path for your project. There are a thousand people who can say no, but no single person who can say yes.