Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors

Molten salt coolants

with dissolved uranium and thorium fluorides

promise reactors that can generate electric

power cheaper than from coal. Robert Hargraves and Ralph Moir March 29, 2010 1934: Hungarian physicist Leó Szilárd filed a patent for chain reaction fission. Enrico Fermi sketched a lattice of graphite and uranium oxide. Fermi's 1942 Chicago pile illustrated criticalit y. Fermi's 1944 first fluid reactor measured U‐235 critical mass.

uranyl sulfate in water

all the world's U-235 !

beryllium oxide neutron reflector

http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/doe/lanl/pubs/00416628.pdf Weinberg's PWR was heterogeneous. uranium fuel rods modtiderating water The aqueous homogeneous reactor at Oak Ridge generated 140 kW in 1953 .

Rich ard E ngel a dds 300 g of uranium in 500 ml of heavy water to generate electric power for two months.

National Geographic LAMPRE

Los Alamos Molten Plutonium Reactor Experiment

1961-1963 molten iron and plutonium fuel liquid sodium cooled J J Went developed a 1 MW suspension test reactor in 1974 at KEMA , Ne ther lan ds.

A homogeneous slurry of uranium particles was susppyended in heavy water. Weinberg had proposed the PWR to Rick over 's team f or naval propul si on. Rickover + Shippingport Æ 100 US PWRs. Radiation, fission products, and heat damage solid fuel .

Zirconium cladding must contain fuel for centuries. Spent fuel contains fission products, fissil e ffluel, and filfertile uranium. 3% fission products

WASTE 1% plutonium

Enriched 0.50% Pu-239 FUEL uranium fuel 0.25% Pu-240 future FUEL Power reactor 0.15% Pu-241 FUEL 96.5% U-238 96% uranium 3.5% U-235 0.83% U-235 FUEL 0.40% U-236 future FUEL 94.77% U-238 future FUEL

t%itiidtrace % minor actinides Np, Am, Cm, … France reprocesses some spent fuel. 92 T 1050 T depleted U enriched UOx 500 T UOx spent fuel 100 T 1450 T MOX fresh fuel (for 59 reactors) 100 T MOX spent fuel 850 T in UOx spent ffluel 300 T temporary or 8 T re‐ permanent Pu enriched storage U Reprocessing in Russia Pu Plant 505 T U stockpiled separates U, Pu radioactive wastes 37 T radioactive waste vitrified

http://spectrum.ieee.org/print/4891 Actinides fission or absorb neutrons to form new actinides, which .... Two breeding technologies provide 102 X more energy than 0.7% U-235. All five US LMFBRs were shut down, as was the I nt egral F ast R eact or proj ect .

Fissi on pro duc t was tes Current thermal Fissionable U, Np, Pu, reactors +-Am, Cm, … kept together OidOxides to metals

Metals Cadmium etc New fuel Future fast Electrorefining rod casting reactors In LFTR the liquid Th-232 blanket becomes the U-233 liquid fuel. Weinberg and Oak Ridge developed the first molten salt nuclear reactor in 1954.

860 C

Red hot!

100 hours

2.5 MW 235 UF4 fuel in molten NaF and ZrF4 salt flowed through beryllium moderators.

intrinsic reactivity stability

automatically adjusted power without control rods

corrosion resitistant

NaK metal would transfer 200 MW thermal power to jet engines.

1.4 m diameter The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment ran until 1965.

Salt flowed through channels in this graphite core. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment succeeded.

Hastelloy Xe off-gas GhitGraphite

http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2006/pres/124659.pdf The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment succeeded.

Hastelloy Xe off-gas GhitGraphite Pumps Fluorination

http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2006/pres/124659.pdf The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment succeeded.

Hastelloy Xe off-gas GhitGraphite Pumps Fluorination Dump tanks U-233 17,655 hours

http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2006/pres/124659.pdf

Weinberg had envisioned LFTR ever since the 1943 Wigner aqueous design.

"hum anki dependednd' " s whol upon e futu re this Global warming, overpopulation, and resources competition are increasing.

10 8 6 4 2 0 Dennis Meadows’ Limits to Growth showed effects of finite resources.

Industrial Output Pollution Resources

Population Food

1972 2010 http://www.aspoitalia.net/images/stories/aspo5presentations/Meadows_ASPO5.pdf Energy cheaper than from coal is important. Energy cheaper than from coal is important.

Coppgenhagen failed. Energy cheaper than from coal is important.

Coppgenhagen failed.

Coal costs $40 a ton – $0.02 / kWh just for the coal. Population is stable in developed nations.

10 9 WldWorld 8 7 6.7 billion 2008 6 5 4 3 2 OECD 1 0 US 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010 2020 2030 2040 2050 http://caliban.sourceoecd.org/vl=1260748/cl=17/nw=1/rpsv/factbook/010101.htm http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/13/38/16587241.pdf Prosperity stabilizes population.

GDP 82 nations with populations per over 10 million. capita

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html Children per woman Prosperity stabilizes population.

GDP 82 nations with populations per over 10 million. capita

ÅStable replacement rate

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html Children per woman Prosperity stabilizes population.

GDP 82 nations with populations per over 10 million. capita

ÅStable replacement rate

Prosperity

https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html Children per woman Prosperity depends on energy.

$50,000 GDP per $45,000 Nations with populations $40,000 capita over 10 million. $35,000

$30,000

$25,000

$20,000 $15,000

$10,000 $5,000

$0 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2042rank.html Annual kWh per capita Prosperity depends on energy.

$50,000 GDP per $45,000 Nations with populations $40,000 capita over 10 million. $35,000

$30,000

$25,000

$20,000 $15,000

$10,000 Prosperity $5,000

$0 0 2000 4000 6000 8000 10000 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2042rank.html Annual kWh per capita LFTR can make electricity cheaper than flfrom coal.

100 MW LFTR $ Cost $ per mo, $ per KWH 40 yrs, 8% @ 90% Construction 200,000 ,000 1,390 ,600 0.0214 100 kg U startup 1,000,000 6,953 0.000108 Thorium fuel 30,000/yr 2500 0.00000386 Decomm (½ const) 100,000,000 960 0.00000148 OtiOperations 1,000 ,000/ yr 83,333 0.00128 TOTAL 0.0228

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601080&refer=asia&sid=aV_2FPlVxISE The median of five cost estimates for molten salt react ors i s < $2/ watt .

Estimate Year $/watt 2009 $/watt Sargent & Lundy 1962 0.650 4644.64 Sargent & Lundy ORNL TM‐ 1965 0.148 1.01 1060 ORNL‐3996 1966 0.243 1.62 Engel et al, ORNL TM7207 1978 0.653 2.16 Moir 2000 1.580 1.98 LFTR needs no costly 160-atmosphere pressure vessel and containment dome.

GE-Hitachi ABWR 39 months 1, 356 MW 36 x 29 meter containment 1,000 ton crawler cranes The Westinghouse Toshiba AP-1000 is massively larger than a 100 MW LFTR.

AP-1000 SChiSamen, China Jan 2010 The Westinghouse AP-1000 is massively larger than LFTR.

1.4 m

1.4 m AP-1000 SChiSamen, China Jan 2010 LFTR relies on simple, intrinsic safety systems, not costl y d ef ense i n d epth .

Stable reactivity.

Fuel already melted.

Freeze plug Atmospheric pressure.

Salt from rupture or leak will solidify .

Melting freeze plug dumps salt to tank. High thermal energy efficiencies keep LFTR compact and l ow cost .

Molten salt is a high thermal capacity heat exchangg,e fluid, better than water, sodium, or helium.

Carbon composite heat exchangers presage future higgpher temperatures. Closed cycle Brayton turbine raises power conversion efficiency to 45+%.

Halving rejected heat enables air cooling. Boeing makes one $200 million aircraft per day. The learning curve experience runs counter to economy of scale .

10% learning ratio By‐product U‐232’s decay chain emits gamma rays hazardous to bomb builders.

nucleons Th 90 Pa 91 U 92 Np 93

235 neutron abs/decay 234 (n,2n) 233

232 beta decay

231

230 neutron absorption Uranium from a commercial LFTR will not be used for weapons.

Breeds only as much U-233 as it consumes. New U‐233 fuel Removing any will stop the LFTR. n n Uranium Fissile separator U‐233 core

Fertile New Th‐232 Th‐232 blanket Uranium from a commercial LFTR will not be used for weapons.

Breeds only as much U-233 as it consumes. New U‐233 fuel Removing any will stop the LFTR. n n Uranium U-232 contamination Fissile separator U‐233 core will be 0. 13%.

A 5 kg sphere of it Fertile radiates 4, 200 mrem/hr New Th‐232 Th‐232 blanket at 1 meter. Uranium from a commercial LFTR will not be used for weapons.

Breeds only as much U-233 as it consumes. New U‐233 fuel Removing any will stop the LFTR. n n Uranium U-232 contamination Fissile separator U‐233 core will be 0. 13%.

A 5 kg sphere of it Fertile radiates 4, 200 mrem/hr New Th‐232 Th‐232 blanket at 1 meter.

After 72 hours of exposure a weapons worker will likely die. Uranium from a commercial LFTR will not be used for weapons.

Breeds only as much U-233 as it consumes. New U‐233 fuel Removing any will stop the LFTR. n n Uranium U-232 contamination Fissile separator U‐233 core will be 0. 13%.

A 5 kg sphere of it Fertile radiates 4, 200 mrem/hr New Th‐232 Th‐232 blanket at 1 meter.

India, Pakistan, and North Korea After 72 hours of demonstrated far less technically exposure a weapons challenging and costly paths. worker will likely die. LFTR produces much less long lived radiotoxic actinide waste. Moir and Teller proposed LFTR R&D in 2005 US R&D in nuclear fission had dropped – to zero for breeders.

IAEA, via Inter. Panel on Fissile Materials Feb 2010 A prototype LFTR could be operational i5in 5 years.

$ 1 B $ 5 B $$py 70 B per year industr y

Develop Scale up Produce Export

2010 2015 2020 One LFTR per day Commercialize A prototype LFTR could be operational i5in 5 years.

$ 1 B $ 5 B $$py 70 B per year industr y

Develop Scale up Produce Export

2010 2015 2020 One LFTR per day Commercialize

Rickover's Shippingport was built in 32 months. Weinberg-engineered Oak Ridge X-10 was built in 9 months. Aim High! Zero emissions worldwide.

Install one 100 MW LFTR each day, worldwide, to reppplace all coal power.

10 billion Å 1400 GWY tons CO2

Annual emissions from coal power plants

2020 2058 http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/table63.xls Aim Higgyh! Synthesize fuel and fertilizer.

Dissociate water at 900oC to make CO2 + 3 H2 Æ hyygdrogen: sulfur-iodine process. CH3OH + H2O

Methanol for gasoline

Dimethyl ether for diesel

Ammonia for http://wwwtest.iri.tudelft.nl/~klooster/reports/hydro_slides_2003.pdf fertilizer Aim High! Check population growth, polluti on, and resources use.

Resources Industrial Output

Population

Food

Pollution Liquid Fuel Nuclear Reactors will be published this summer.