Transatomic Power Wants to Build a Better Reactor

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34 points·markmassie··5 comments

There are quite a few independent attempts to do that: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor#Liquid_fluo...

Mostly based on thorium, but they seems just use enriched uranium (U-235)... So potentially you can construct an atomic bomb fairly easily out of this fuel.

Very mildly enriched uranium, at just 1.8% U-235: http://transatomicpower.com/products.php

That's less enriched than conventional reactor fuel.

Using thorium doesn't necessarily prevent proliferation. If you have a design that separates protactinium, you can let that decay to pure U-233, which by at least some accounts is easy to turn into a bomb.

It would be nice if the article had any information about how this reactor would be different from the 50-year old MSRE (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment)

"Transatomic Power has greatly improved the molten salt concept, while retaining its significant safety benefits. The main technical change we make is to change the moderator and fuel salt used in previous molten salt reactors to a zirconium hydride moderator, with a LiF - based fuel salt. During operation the fuel in the salt is primarily uranium. Together, these components generate a neutron spectrum that allows the reactor to run using fresh uranium fuel with enrichment levels as low as 1.8% U-235, or using the entire actinide component of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). Previous molten salt reactors such as the ORNL Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) relied on high-enriched uranium, with 33% U-235 [1]. Enrichments that high would raise proliferation concerns if used in commercial nuclear power plants."

From their white paper here: http://transatomicpower.com/white_papers/TAP_White_Paper.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AP1000

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