Posted on 01/07/2011 9:47:41 PM PST by Straight Vermonter
Aker Solutions' Accelerator Driven Thorium Reactor™ (ADTR) has won the prestigious Energy Award at this year's IChemE (Institution of Chemical Engineers) Innovations and Excellence Awards. The Energy Award recognizes the best project or process to demonstrate innovation in renewable energy, alternative energy sources, efficient energy use or the development of energy production methods that reduce energy and water intensity.
More about the ADTR(TM) power station
The Accelerator Driven Thorium Reactor™ (ADTR) power station is the name given by Aker Solutions for the company's new design of a nuclear power station. Given world-wide expansion in nuclear power generation, driven by many countries to combat climate change and meet growth in energy demand, the ADTRTM provides the ideal solution to use thorium as an alternative fuel to uranium.
Aker Solutions has developed the concept design of a 600MWe ADTR™ power station with Nobel Prize winner Professor Carlo Rubbia of CERN. The design is an accelerator driven, thorium fuelled, lead cooled, power producing, fast reactor. Thorium is an abundant mineral deposit; there is 3 to 5 times more thorium in the world than uranium. One tonne of mined thorium produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of mined uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of mined coal. Thorium has non-proliferation benefits as it does not require the expensive enrichment process often associated with military use.
The ADTR™ power station can be configured to burn radioactive wastes from current uranium fuelled reactors, thus reducing the long term waste burden and environmental risks with waste storage. The ten year fuel cycle gives the ADTR™ significant economic benefits over current uranium fuelled nuclear reactors.
A key advantage of accelerator driven, sub-critical systems over conventional nuclear reactors, is that the accelerator is the main source of reactor control; turn off the accelerator and the reaction reduces virtually instantaneously. This system also enables simple load following control capability.
"This technology offers the potential to supply even small grids from compact 600MW reactors constructed safely underground," says Gary Mandel, executive vice president of Aker Solutions' Process and Construction business.
The ADTR™ power station is targeted at the global energy market, aligning itself with fourth generation nuclear reactor concepts that will come to fruition by 2030.
ping
This is a big story. The combination of thorium reactors and supercapacitor vehicles could end the petroleum economy and OPEC.
bflr
The PhD who visited me (interested in my tunneling experience) method uses 16 isotopes, and 16 cheap medical accelerators hitting a detrium pellet coated with Lithium, and H3 gas to syphon off the energy and 4 - 5 smaller containment chambers.
Both methods claim they can generate fusion power by 2018. No radiation or waste. Question is? which method is best. Both have web sites ITER and fusionpowercorporation.
If it were perfected tomorrow, the Eco-Nuts would find something about it to riot over!
It’s pretty clear that some form of nuclear energy is the way to go, may not be the same tech we use now.
The sooner the better!
I want my 100 Octane alcohol free gas back, and I want it CHEAP!
Apparently we chose uranium over this, just for the nuke weapons.
We can only hope
Thorium bombs are not possible?
Fusion reactions do throw off radiation... can’t be avoided. This sounds like a scam.
Eco-nuts would whine about the liquid lead.
No, Thorium bombs are not possible, but there is a weapon hidden in the Thorium reactor scheme.
When Thorium captures a neutron, it eventually converts to Uranium 233. Just like the more widely known U-235, this is a fissile material which can be made into nuclear weapons.
And, separating U-233 from Thorium is easy compared to separating U-235 from U-238.
Fusion reactions do throw off radiation... can’t be avoided. This sounds like a scam.
The “radiation” from fusion reactions is in the form of the high energy neutrons coming off the fusing ions, and of the very low enrgy decay products of the dueterium production (or tritium) used as the fuel.
Since the neutrons must be captured to heat up the water that actually produces the steam that produces the useable energy out of the plant, the neutron “losses” (absorbed into steel and concrete and piping and heat exchangers) “stays” in those “permanent” plant equipment. It isn’t “released” to the environment, and - unlike the fission fuel by products and decay products - is not a high radioactive gas or soluble chemical.
Yes - It is mildly radioactive. But manageable.
Sounds like it’ll work. After all, Cobalt Thorium G has has a half-life of 93 years...
Hmmm, but what sort of quantities do you get?
100 Lb. of Thorium yields ? U-233?
Over what time frame?
Would it be an efficient source for U-235?
Maybe this is what happened to the fish and the birds?
Or, how about that Large Hadron Collider?
My 2007 Mustang GT takes regular gas....but, yes, ALCOHOL FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!
Pardon me for being a skeptic, but I remember how 'nuclear power generated electricity was going to be so cheap to produce that it would be free'...
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for developing alternate forms of energy generation and transport. What I reasonably fear is the sort of political climate which discards that which works for that which does not, and then mandates the latter. In the end, the marketplace should decide.
It's small wonder why both India and China are aggressively developing thorium-based reactors, especially since thorium is far more available than uranium naturally.
What’s going on with Polywell fusion? I’ve been monitoring this website ( http://iecfusiontech.blogspot.com/ ) for a few years to keep up but it’s been dead since the middle of last summer.
And thorium is an unwanted byproduct of Rare Earth Metals refining, and one of the reason we were prevented mining them here. Since China at present has a stranglehold monopoly on supplying these critical metals, they likewise would love a thorium-to-energy solution.
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