You do need some of the nasty stuff pu239, u235, u233 to bootstrap a lftr reactor, but much less that a traditional nuclear design. First moltensalt thorium nuclear reactor experiment in over 45 years starts in the netherlands. It is also unlimited and will be virtually forever, day and night, rain or shine. Mits proposed sparc design calls for a reactor with an outer radius of 1.
Its a kind of molten salt reactor msr that enriches thorium 3x more abundant than uranium in earths crust in a liquid salt and then burns the product of that enriched. Many fast reactor design can be set up to transmute waste, and it is possible to take waste from a lwr and separate the things which can be transmuted and place it into the appropriate fast reactor design to burn it off, not just lftr. Some of the points may be slightly debatable or not applicable to all msrlftr designs, but i hope it paints a clear picture as to the difficulty in msrs. The hts magnets have the potential to keep the plasma tightly bound and insulated from outside forces. Is safe, green thorium power finally ready for prime time. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr offers promise for the future. Mit plans new fusion reactor that could actually generate. For all irreversible reactions of greater than zero order, the volume of the reactor approaches.
It also decreases the size of containment building required to enclose the reactor. It operates at high temperatures and atmospheric pressure, and is hoped to provide a safe form of commercialscale nuclear energy it is considered inherently safe due to the nature of the process and the materials, unlike. The science, technology and economics of using thorium in a power generating nuclear reactor and the future of energy over the next 20 to 50 years. Jul 23, 2017 cited as an example of a thorium reactor by dr.
Norway begins four year test of thorium nuclear reactor. Flibe energy with its liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr concept, is one of the three companies that was today awarded a gain nuclear energy ne voucher to accelerate the innovation and application of its technology. A pair of mit scientists try to transform nuclear power forbes. Buy what is a lftr, and how can a reactor be so safe molten salt reactors, including liquid fluoride thorium reactors. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a heterogeneous msr design which breeds its u233 fuel from a fertile blanket of lithiumberyllium fluoride flibe salts with thorium fluoride. This book puts the focus on the specialized topic of liquidmetal thermal hydraulics for advanced fast nuclear reactors, a discipline that is essential for liquidmetal fast reactor design and the subsequent safety assessment of the design and the reactor as built. Early in the 2000s, a young man called kirk sorensen, just after finishing grad school, worked with a group at nasa that did advanced technology work.
He is an active advocate for developing liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr technology, the details of which were covered in our earlier podcast. A slightly different type of msr can consume the uraniumplutonium waste from solidfueled reactors as fuel. For a 1 year cycle you would spend 23 months on each sequence, where. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr pronounced lifter in short, is the first reactor in history to have its own internet based fan club. Temperature gas reactor htgr or gas turbine modular helium reactor gtmhr baxi, 2006, 2009 refer to the directly cbc systems, while cbc energy conversion via the very high temperature reactor vhtr, msrmolten salt reactor, or lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor refer to indirectly heated cycles. What is a lftr, and how can a reactor be so safe molten. There is a great deal of useful information in this document. New dawn for thorium nuclear reactor research the engineer. Many components and designs will come from europe and the usa but china and india will dominate the building and design of future reactors. Thorium and uranium233 are dissolved in molten lithium fluoride salt in the reactor. The thorium232 captures neutrons from the reactor core to become protactinium233, which decays 27day halflife to u233.
The fission products of lftr reactor are much more favorable than those of pwr. Msrs offer multiple advantages over conventional nuclear power plants, although for historical reasons further explanation needed, they have not been deployed. Lftr is a direct descendant of the msre, which was developed at oak ridge national laboratory ornl in the usa during the 196070s. Right up to his dying day, he was trying to raise funds, to build a full scale prototype, of his polywell nuclear fusion reactor design. Perhaps these technical problems can be overcome, but why would anyone bother to try, knowing in advance that the msr plant will be uneconomic due to huge construction costs and operating costs, plus will explode and rain radioactive molten salt when not if the steam.
Bussard at the end of his life, claimed to have solved these problems. Just because its nuclear does not mean it is simply on or off. Perhaps these technical problems can be overcome, but why would anyone bother to try, knowing in advance that the msr plant will be uneconomic due to huge construction costs and operating costs, plus will explode and rain radioactive molten salt when not if the steam generator tubes leak. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is an innovative design for the thermal breeder reactor that has important potential benefits over the traditional reactor design. Jan 17, 2012 what is a liquid fluoride thorium reactor. The original ge reactor core design split the control rods up into 4 groups, a1, a2, b1, b2. Two years ago, we interviewed kirk sorensen about the potential for thorium to offer humanity a safe, cheap and abundant source of energy. Pdf advantages of liquid fluoride thorium reactor in. It is important to ensure that the equipment specified will be capable of achieving the desired yields and selectivity.
Exponential medicine, exponential finance and all associated logos and design elements are trademarks andor service marks of singularity education. Heat from the reactor is transferred to another loop of molten salt not containing nuclear materials. Nov 07, 2018 the hts magnets have the potential to keep the plasma tightly bound and insulated from outside forces. Electricity produced by the liquid fluoride thorium reactor, lftr lifter, is clean and safe. At the dawn of the nuclear industry, the united states manhattan project developed the atomic bomb, or real two models of atomic bombs, one using uranium 235 and one using plutonium 239. This will be followed by an overview of the liquid fluoride thorium reactor, a twofluid molten salt reactor currently under development by flibe energy in the usa. Lftr is fluoride based liquid fuel, that use the thorium dissolved in salt mixture of. This molten salt reactor using thorium is called a lftr or liquid fluoride thorium reactor and is one of many designs currently being worked on around the world today, though most are starting with uranium first. Sep 27, 2012 superfuel focused on another type of molten salt reactor, a liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr. Safety assessment of molten salt reactors in comparison. According to superfuel, a 20 book on thorium energys demise and promise by. Molten salt reactor technology is long overdue for a reemergence, and this book is an excellent summary of history, theory, and current state of the art. Lftrs use the thorium fuel cycle with a fluoridebased, molten, liquid salt for fuel. The generation iv reactor designs are attempts to do just that.
It is cheaper than coal, much cheaper when coals hidden external costs are calculated. The thorium, and all the other elements that are part of the fuel cycle, are dissolved in molten fluoride salts. Molten salt reactors and thorium energy woodhead publishing. Lyons, it was never intended to be economical, and features no advantages of lftr. Future energy, thorium and the lftr reactor youtube. The reactor at halden is not ideal for thorium as it is a heavy water reactor, built for running uranium. Dec 18, 2012 is safe, green thorium power finally ready for prime time.
The liquid fluoride thorium reactor is the key to producing life saving cancer treatments and clean, reliable, sustainable energy. By design, the reactor dumps the medium into dump tanks, away from the reagent. Msrs also use a coolant that remains liquid at atmospheric pressure. A liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a type of molten salt reactor msr that can use inexpensive thorium for fuel thorium becomes uranium inside the reactor. Superfuel focused on another type of molten salt reactor, a liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr. Using modern design for the lftr core, a reactor with a 6. Shortest intro to molten salt the thorium reactor the. Lftr is fluoride based liquid fuel, that use the thorium dissolved in salt mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. The molten salt reactor msr, predecessor of the lftr, lost out to the lwr in the early 50s for a simple reason. If thorium lftr reactors are so awesome, why hasnt anyone. Apr 29, 2015 liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is an innovative design for the thermal breeder reactor that has important potential benefits over the traditional reactor design.
As fission radioactive decay occurs, heat is released and free neutrons start changing more thorium into uranium233. Molten salt reactor, or lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor refer to indirectly heated cycles. Thermal power generated from nuclear fission would drive electrical. Traditionally these reactors are thought of as thermal breeder reactors running on the thorium to 233 u cycle and the historical competitor to fast breeder reactors. As the search for cheap, safe and noncarbon emitting sources of energy continues, a band of scientists say the answer may be nuclear reactors. While it is certainly true that such a reactor ran successfully for 4 years and that this project proved that some of the ideas behind the msr have merit, there are a couple of key things it didn.
Reactor design is a vital step in the overall design of a process. He built a small prototype using a grant from the us navy. In a batch reactor, the reagents are added together and allowed to react for a given amount of time. The first phase of the salt irradiation experiment salient has begun at the nuclear research and consultancy group in petten, a nuclear research facility on the dutch north sea coast. It was a solidfuel reactor, and so operated at lowtemperature. Nuclear waste produced by lftr is relatively shortlived. Molten salt reactors msrs have a long history with the first design studies beginning in the 1950s at the oak ridge national laboratory ornl. Thorium reactor liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr. The molten salt reactor msr, predecessor of the lftr, lost out to the lwr in. A molten salt reactor msr is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant andor the fuel is a molten salt mixture. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr simply too dangerous. Using that template, the energy from thorium team helped produce a design for a new liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr pronounced lifter, which.
Heres a post i wrote for a coursera course i was taing. If thorium lftr reactors are so awesome, why hasnt. Therefore, lftr technology is fundamentally different from the solid fuel. Molten salt reactors are generation iv nuclear fission reactors that use molten salt as either the primary reactor coolant or as the fuel itself. Thorium requires no such enrichment hit it with a neutron, and separate out the u233 chemically to run your reactor. Sorensens assignment was to look for an energy source that would be suitable to power a moon base. Oct 07, 2016 the lftr is a type of molten salt reactor. The liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr design by flibe energy is a graphitemoderated, thermalspectrum reactor with solutions of liquid fluoride salts containing both fissile and fertile materials. Aug 31, 20 the science, technology and economics of using thorium in a power generating nuclear reactor and the future of energy over the next 20 to 50 years. Part 8 the molten salt reactor concept daryanenergyblog. A detailed exploration of thoriums potential as an energy source. Armchair lftr enthusiast here thats liquid fluoride thorium reactor.
The goal here is to present the basics of a lftr design and the inherent advantages and problems with such a design. Using that template, the energy from thorium team helped produce a design for a new liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr pronounced lifter, which, according to estimates by sorensen and. A molten salt reactor, such as liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr, pronounced lifter produces energy using a liquid molten nuclear fuel, not a solid fuel. In the us, the general design requirements for nuclear power plants requires the plant to have total capability to control the reactivity rate in the core at all times, so a throttling method is required just to get an operating license. The launch risk of a nuclear reactor falling on your head should be considered in all such designs, but as the primary fuel in a lftr design is th232, there is no need for tons of enriched fuel. Advantages of liquid fluoride thorium reactor in comparison. Fission chain reaction when the nucleus of a fissile material such as uranium235 is induced to fission by the absorption of a neutron, two to three neutrons, on average, are released as the two fission. This paper will focus on the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr design, an implementation of one such gen iv idea, the molten salt reactor. Note that, due to the much higher heat transfer capability of liquid molten salt. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr simply too dangerous thats why it was stopped. The epa estimates 34,000 untimely deaths per year in the us attributable to coal. Chaplin encyclopedia of life support systems eolss 1.
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