Even with an initial engineering background, and a mechanical engineering background at that, I was really surprised how important formal education in nuclear engineering is. I had thought, when I first began learning about thorium and fluoride reactors several years ago, that doing some overall reactor design calculations would be as simple as getting a […]
For those of you who’ve tried to use my “Brayton Cycle Simulation” in the past, I apologize for the lack of explanation of how to use it. In an attempt to remedy that, I’ve written an HTML page where I’ve described how to use the controls, along with a major update to the code itself. […]
A big thanks to Professor Chris Rhodes, who wrote an excellent letter to the Independent, a paper in the UK, about the feasibility and desireability of using a fluoride reactor to make energy from thorium rather than an accelerator-driven reactor. Good job, Chris! Chris blogs at Energy Balance and always has excellent posts about energy-related […]
Some of you might have noticed a new link on the right-hand-side of the blog. I’ve gotten the “bulletin board” feature activated on my website, and now we have a discussion forum where we can talk about energy-related matters, especially those relating to the use of thorium. Please register and participate in the discussion.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen an article in the “popular media” on the topic of fluoride reactors, beyond the occasional one I’ve seen about MSRE remediation. Occasionally, there’s one about thorium and the promise that it shows as a nuclear fuel, but these articles practically never mention fluoride reactors. Even articles about the DOE […]
IEA warns current energy system ‘doomed to failure’ “On current trends, we are on course for an expensive and dirty energy system that will go from crisis to crisis. It can mean more supply disruptions, meteorological disasters or both. This energy future is not only unsustainable, but it is doomed to failure. “Governments can either […]
In commemoration of Dr. Weinberg’s life and his contributions to the field of energy science, OSTI has posted a selected collection of some of his works in the energy field: Alvin Weinberg: Exploring Profound Challenges to Mankind’s Future All I can say after skimming some of these, is that Dr. Weinberg was looking at a […]
Brian Wang and I have been having a good time lately talking to environmentalists on their blogs. On a blog from Australia recently, I took the opportunity to go after the old “nuclear emits as much CO2 as coal” canard. This is one that I seem to see all the time on blogs that have […]
Bruce Hoglund has brought some very interesting information to my attention in recent months, that I wanted to talk about here. Over the years, the strange beast of “proliferation” raises its head in various forms and fashions to afflict any reactor design. There are all different degrees in how it is interpreted and exercised. Some […]
$1,000,000,000,000: the cost of capping greenhouse gas emissions PricewaterhouseCooper has released a study saying that it will cost roughly a trillion dollars to “cap” the emissions of CO2. These kind of numbers will clearly scare many policy-makers who are convinced that reducing CO2 emissions is incompatible with healthy economic growth. Without plunging into the debate […]