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Modular Thorium Reactor - ThorCon MSR 12 January, 2015 Martingale reveals a bold approach to solving the global issues of poverty, pollution, energy security, and climate. Today Martingale is announcing its ThorCon liquid-fuel nuclear reactor design for cheap, reliable, CO2-free electricity. ThorCon is a complete system of power generation modules, interchange maintenance, and liquid fuel service that produces energy cheaper than coal. Principal engineer Jack Devanney led a four-year “skunkworks” project that has created a new kind of nuclear power plant, integrating proven technologies with breakthrough approaches to manufacturing and licensing. Production can start by 2020.Former MIT professor Devanney’s background...

Today, it was announced that the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory  (ORNL) in Tennessee is partnering with Canadian nuclear company Terrestrial Energy Inc. (TEI) to assist with TEI’s new Integral Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). The engineering blueprint stage for this GenIV reactor should be reached in two years. The reactor should come online in less than ten.

  Bill Gates' Dream for a Nuclear-Powered Future Is Almost Here By Maxx Chatsko | More Articles | Save For Later March 4, 2014 | Comments (1) Is this the future of clean energy? Source: TerraPower.Things may be different today, but in its heyday, Microsoft was a game-changing company that forever altered the way the world interacted with computers. The creative genius and foresight of Bill Gates has paid off in a significant way: He's the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $76 billion, according to Forbes. While Gates still advises Microsoft, he has turned much of his...

Thorium, a Safer Nuclear Alternative? Added by admin on April 3, 2011.Saved under TourismTags: Areva, Brave New Climate Blog, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Fukushima, George Monbiot, Grenoble, Jean-Marie Loiseaux, Joe Bonometti, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie de Grenoble, LFTR- Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, Lightbridge, molten-salt nuclear reactor, Oak Ridge National Lab, Professor Barry Brook, Roger Brisso, Thorium, Thorium Energy Alliance, US Atomic Energy Commission, Wired As France, dependent on 58 reactors for 75-80% of its energy, firmly reasserts its faith in nuclear in the wake of Fukushima, China is headed towards a clean...

Chinese scientists urged to develop new thorium nuclear reactors by 2024 PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 18 March, 2014, 11:42pm UPDATED : Wednesday, 19 March, 2014, 4:54am Stephen Chen \   Beijing wants to cut its reliance on coal-fired power. Photo: AP The deadline to develop a new design of nuclear power plant has been brought forward by 15 years as the central government tries to reduce the nation's reliance on smog-producing coal-fired power stations.A team of scientists in Shanghai had originally been given 25 years to try to develop the world's first nuclear plant using the radioactive element thorium as...

Atomic Car Revisited: Thorium Could Power A Vehicle for 100 Years? By George Kennedy 5 hours ago   A car that could run for 100 years on one tank of fuel? It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but it is just what a company is apparently claiming possible with the use of an atomic fuel that was abandoned during the Nixon administration. We’re talking about the sounds-too-good-to-be-true substance called “Thorium.”Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. It was discovered in 1828 by a Norwegian mineralogist and identified by a Swedish chemist, who then named it after the Norse god, Thor.ATOMIC...

Scientists in Shanghai are attempting a breakthrough in nuclear energy: reactors powered by thorium, an alternative to uranium.

Thorium China Is Using US Research to Take the Lead on Thorium Reactor Development   By Derek MeadA CAD render of an old Oak Ridge molten salt reactor design, via Flibe Energy In the fracking-dominated and carbon-obsessed United States, we often forget that carbon-neutral energy doesn't have to simply be solar and wind. There's also nuclear power, of which alternative, safe power cycles exist, ones that were first developed by American researchers. But after years of sitting around, that research is finally being put to use–by China.We've long discussed the thorium dream in depth here at Motherboard, largely because it's oh...

Taylor Wilson built a fusion reactor at age 14 and remains interested in nuclear technology. So, at 19, he has presented his idea for a small reactor concept that uses molten salt to make the smaller reactor both more powerful and more efficient than their cousins. Wilson's fission reactor operates at 600 to 700 degrees Celsius. And because the laws of thermodynamics say that high temperatures lead to high efficiencies, this reactor is 45 to 50 percent efficient. Traditional steam turbine systems are only 30 to 35 percent efficient because their reactors run at low temperatures of about 200 to...

Bill Gates Is Beginning to Dream the Thorium Dream By Brian Merchant Image: Wikimedia Mention thorium—an alternative fuel for nuclear power—to the right crowd, and faces will alight with the same look of spirited devotion you might see in, say, Twin Peaks and Chicago Cubs fans. People love thorium against the odds. And now Bill Gates has given them a new reason to keep rooting for the underdog element. TerraPower, the Gates-chaired nuclear power company, has garnered attention for pursuing traveling wave reactor tech, which runs entirely on spent uranium and would rarely need to be refueled. But the concern...

Bill Gates’ nuclear company explores molten salt reactors, thorium July 23rd, 2013 Posted by Mark Halper Bill Gates TED Jurvetson Flickr Opening the nuclear Gates. TerraPower, Bill Gates’ nuclear company, is now open to reactor types other than its traveling wave design. The traveling wave remains the company’s focus, although Terra has morphed it into more of a “standing wave.” TerraPower, the Bill Gates-chaired nuclear company that is developing a fast reactor, is now investigating alternative reactor technologies, including thorium fuel and molten salt reactors. While the company’s “big bet” continues to be on a fast reactor that TerraPower calls...

This stuff could very well revolutionize nuclear power. Thorium-MOX can be formed into rods and used in current generation (Gen II) nuclear reactor with minimal retrofitting. Thor Energy is currently testing the new technology on the small scale. A prototype reactor will power a paper mill in the town of Halden, Norway for the next five years. If the fuel proves to be commercially viable during that test, we could see a sea change in nuclear power by the end of the decade.

In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama declared: "I will not walk away from clean energy[.] ... After all, innovation is what America has always been about[.] ... This country needs an all-out, all-of-the-above strategy that develops every available source of American energy -- a strategy that's cleaner, cheaper, and full of new jobs." President Obama may not walk away from clean energy, but he has turned his back on an innovative American-made nuclear technology meeting all the above criteria and much more. Yes, renewable green nuclear technology does exist. It was invented in Oak Ridge, Tennessee...