[ExI] Are mini nuclear power stations the way forward?

[Eugen Leitl]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2011 at 02:39:38PM -0700, Ryan Rawson wrote:
> What about thorium liquid salt reactors?  No proliferation, and

Any preparative neutron source is useful for proliferation,
even if the fuel cycle directly doesn't provide the weapon
fissibles (if you've done your research you'd knew that
the thorium fuel cycle produces at least one istope that's
usable and in fact was used in US test Operation Teapot --
and, no, don't tell me about glove boxes and radiation
detectors on critical routes into Manhattan).

> thorium has more availability than U.

Less relevant because it's a breeder, and needs no
isotopic enrichment after having been kickstarted, and it 
has in situ fuel processing.
 
> Anyone else know about this?

In order to fit the scheme you forgot to mention
polywell. Or regular, old-fashioned tokamak fusion.

Why don't we start substituting 500 GW annually
with fusion immediately. Or polywell. Or thorium 
fuel cycle plants.

I mean, just call up Areva or Siemens and ask them 
about a quote for a MSR. Try it.
 
-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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