As was previously mentioned, the actual work on continuous fluorination was surprising small during the Molten-Salt Reactor Program (MSRP) that ran from 1957 until 1976. Fuel reconstitution was mentioned on pages 199-201 of ORNL-3936 in June 1966. Continuous fluorination was mentioned on page 202. They described an experiment using a 1-inch diameter nickel column with […]
All fission reactors turn fissile material like uranium or plutonium into an array of fission and activation products (such as plutonium or neptunium). These fission and activation products have a wide variety of physical and chemical properties. Some are noble gases, some are metals, some are volatile at the operation temperature, and others remain part […]
On Monday, September 12, we took the tube to Euston Station and rode a high-speed train about 300 miles to the north, nearly to the Scottish border. We stopped in Penrith, a small town in Cumbria and the gateway to the beautiful Lake District of northern England. We stayed that night at a very nice […]
Several people who have recently learned about thorium have contacted me with regards to a “fact sheet” about thorium issued by the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) and Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) called “Thorium Fuel: No Panacea for Nuclear Power.” The authors of this sheet were Arjun Makhijani and Michele Boyd. Last […]
As I previously mentioned, I was involved in a proposal to the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) on an investigation in using liquid-halide reactors (both chloride and fluoride) along with salt-based reprocessing techniques to investigate how to address our issues surrounding spent nuclear fuel–often erroneously called “nuclear waste”. In a nutshell, we proposed to fluorinate […]
Does Reprocessing Nuclear Waste Make Sense? Recent statements at the federal level indicate that the concept of “reprocessing” nuclear fuel is ready to be looked at again. This controversial decision was originally made by President Ford in the twilight days of his administation in October 1976, and then reiterated by President Carter shortly thereafter–that civilian […]
Dual Fluid LFTR’s are easy to Reprocess The nuclear materials of a properly-designed, two-fluid (LFTR) Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor are extremely easy to process. This is because the fuel (one-fluid) and the fertile blanket (the other fluid) are already liquids. This immediately eliminates the first step in typical solid-fuel reprocessing, which is converting the fuel […]
In 2003, an article in the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Between MOX and a Hard Place, described the difficulty of disposing of the vast amounts of weapons-grade plutonium and uranium left over from the Cold War. “Weapons-grade” material generally means plutonium that consists predominantly of the isotope plutonium-239, and uranium that consists predominantly of […]