“ORNL molten salt concept could lead to ‘smartphone’ of reactors”, Carolyn Krause, Oak Ridger I recently had the opportunity to speak to the some of the ORNL “old-timers” who comprise the Friends of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (FORNL) in Oak Ridge, TN. FORNL is a non-profit organization focused on promoting the goals of ORNL. I […]
Concept for Fort Saint Vrain Today we are highlighting a reactor that was a pioneer of its kind: the Fort Saint Vrain Nuclear Power Plant, located in Platteville, a city in Northern Colorado. Though the plant has since been converted to a natural gas generating station, Fort Saint Vrain was one of the first thorium-powered […]
The Zoé Reactor, December 21, 1948, during the visit of President Vincent Auriol Today we’re highlighting a historical reactor: the Zoé, the very first French atomic reactor. (And no, I’m not just writing this because we happen to share a name. But maybe I am, a little bit.) The Zoé reactor, sometimes called EL-1 (Eau […]
This is the talk that I gave over lunchtime at the Clean Growth Leadership Network conference, held in London on September 6, 2022: We’re all glad to be here and enjoying one another’s company as we talk about these important issues, but there’s no denying that we’re meeting under a shadow. All of us are […]
These are notable quotes from Glenn Seaborg’s 1993 autobiography “The Atomic Energy Commission Under Nixon“. Breeder Reactor Beginnings In the United States and several other countries, decisions were made quite early that a reactor employing fast neutrons, utilizing the uranium cycle, and cooled with liquid sodium, the so-called liquid metal fast breeder reactor (LMFBR), was […]
These are notable quotes from Alvin Weinberg’s 1994 autobiography “The First Nuclear Era, the Life and Times of a Technological Fixer“. Thorium will create the Second Nuclear Era Until then I had never quite appreciated the full significance of the breeder. But now I became obsessed with the idea that humankind’s whole future depended on […]
October 8, 2018, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the operation of the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) using uranium-233 as a fuel. U-233 does not occur naturally; it is formed when thorium absorbs a neutron then undergoes a double beta decay to form U-233. U-233 is a superior nuclear fuel, producing enough neutrons through its fission […]
Several days after the successful start of the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment, the local paper, the “Oak Ridger”, published this editorial: THE OAK RIDGER FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1965, page 4 Editorial: Significant Step To ‘Burning The Rocks’ Many important stews lead up to the “going critical” of a new reactor. For instance, in the case of […]
For many nuclear engineers, the moment a new reactor first achieves criticality is considered the “birth” of their creation, the moment it “comes alive”. Criticality is special, because it means that the reactor is generating new neutrons at precisely the rate at which they are consumed in fission. Unlike a rocket launch, or a ship […]
We were visiting Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) yesterday and during a lunchtime discussion, the topic of the most recent reactor at ORNL came up. A little discussion ensued and we realized that, with its first criticality in June of 1965, the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) was the second-youngest reactor (in terms of first criticality) […]