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.
Please do some research before you post:
“U-233 is produced from thorium-232 by neutron capture. It can be made highly pure because it can be chemically separated from Th-232 rather than by mass, which is far easier. Therefore, there is no weapons-grade concentration for U-233. Since it can relatively easily be made pure, it is regulated as a special nuclear material only by the total amount present rather than by concentration or concentration combined with the amount. Uranium-232 is a contaminant that is present only in small amounts, but whose highly radioactive decay products like thallium-208 make handling more difficult.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weapons-grade
This type of reactor design would be safe as soon as the power was turned off .
On a different note ,that radiation level at Fukushima plant one would kill you if you were exposed for a day.
” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano says the level of radiation around the quake-damaged Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant is high enough to affect human health.
Edano told reporters on Tuesday morning that 400 millisieverts of radiation per hour had been detected around the plant’s No.3 reactor building at 10:22 AM.” ...
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/15_37.html
If I did my math right that is 40 rads per hour which would give you a lethal dose in less than a day . That exposure level means you would be dead in a month .
I was going to post this but I don’t want to be an alarmist .
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