Several years ago, after reading an occasional passing mention of the possibility of a liquid-chloride reactor in a few papers, I thought myself very novel to imagine the benefits of such a reactor. Then one day, while perusing an old technical journal in the library, I came across a paper written by one “M. Taube” […]
I realize that I am both going against the post-1970 ORNL liquid-fluoride reactor work and the small amount of “conventional wisdom” on the topic by advocating two-fluid (separate blanket and core salts), but I find nuggets in some of these older documents that tell me I am on the right track. This is from Reactor […]
Robert Samuelson of the Washington Post wrote, “We Americans want it all: endless and secure energy supplies; low prices; no pollution; less global warming; no new power plants (or oil and gas drilling, either) near people or pristine places. This is a wonderful wish list, whose only shortcoming is the minor inconvenience of massive inconsistency.”It […]
Last August, I read an article that talked about hearing held in Washington, D.C. by Rep. Judy Biggert of Illinois on the subject of nuclear fuel reprocessing. Rep. Biggert would obviously have great interest in the subject, since Illinois has more nuclear power plants than any other state, and the spent fuel from these reactors […]
1829Jons Berzelius discovers a new element, thorium, in samples sent to him by the Reverend Hans Esmark. Thorium will later be found to be somewhat abundant in the Earth’s crust. 1896Henri Becquerel discovers that pitchblende, an ore containing uranium, causes a photographic plate to darken. 1897J.J. Thomson discovers the first subatomic particle, the negatively-charged electron. […]
Thermodynamics was one of my favorite subjects in school–it was elegant, compelling, and instructive about so many aspects of life. But one thing it was not was intuitive. In fact, thermodynamics can make predictions that sound downright nutty to someone who’s never heard them before. But one of the beauties of the subject is that […]
Chemical reprocessing of nuclear fuel is at the basis of a closed nuclear cycle. We don’t think about it too much in the United States because we just don’t reprocess nuclear fuel! Hence, our spent fuel builds up and people wring their hands about the “unsolved problem of nuclear waste”. In other countries, like France […]
Introduction and Basic Principles of Energy The generation and use of energy is central to the maintenance of organization. Life itself is a state of organization maintained by the continual use of sources of energy. Human civilization has reached the state it has by the widespread use of energy, and for the large fraction of […]
Introduction and Basic Principles of Energy Sustainability The generation and use of energy is central to the maintenance of organization. Life itself is a state of organization maintained by the continual use of sources of energy. Human civilization has reached the state it has by the widespread use of energy, and for the large fraction […]
Perhaps the single most important safety aspect of a nuclear reactor is the temperature coefficient of reactivity. This value describes how the reactor will react to an increase or a decrease in reactor temperature. If the coefficient is positive, then an increase in core temperature will cause an increase in reactivity, which will lead the […]