The Russians Ran a couple of those liqid sodium reactors and I thought they had a meltdown or two because they went out of control.This was reported during the coldwar and the Soviets were not open to proving the info.
Can someone verifye that?
I can’t confirm or deny what the Russians did (or did not do!) in their nuclear research programs.
The USS Seawolf was the second nuclear-powered submarine (after the pressurized water reactor Nautilus). Its first reactor worked (it was liquid metal cooled, substantially smaller, lighter-weight, more powerful (power per cubic foot, power per ton basis) than the simpler, less expensive Nautilus.
It ran, it worked, but maintenance delays and maintenance and shutdown problems and complexities (you can’t run a sub’s reactor all the time!) proved to Rickover that the easier to run, easier to build, easier to refuel, easier to maintain pressurized water reactor was the right choice.
And, in the 50’s, it probably was the right choice.
A thorium reactor MUST be prototyped and run for several years to establish best protections and best practices.
I believe that the Seawolf (SSN 575) was a US Nuclear Submarine with a liquid sodium core.
Problems, problems, problems.
Something about keeping it liquid all the time, interaction with water, bad zoomies, etc.
They replaced the sodium core with a regular naval nuclear core and the sub had an illustrious career doing the Blind Man’s Bluff thing.
As I recall the liquid sodium was the coolant in place of H20, but the fuel was still uranium in those plants.