Molten salt reactor (split from Nuclear Fusion Power [again] and most Powerful Magnet in the world: [13 Tesla's])

[beecee]

Here's another.....https://newatlas.com/energy/seaborg-floating-nuclear-reactor-barge/

Copenhagen startup Seaborg Technologies has raised an eight-figure sum of Euros to start building a fascinating new type of cheap, portable, flexible and super-safe nuclear reactor. The size of a shipping container, these Compact Molten Salt Reactors will be rapidly mass-manufactured in their thousands, then placed on floating barges to be deployed worldwide – on timelines that will smash paradigms in the energy industry.

Like other molten salt reactors, which have been around since the 1950s, they're designed to minimize the consequences of accidents, with a pair of very neat passive safety measures the company claims can greatly change the safety equation at the heart of any nuclear power investment.

Firstly, they use nuclear fuel that's mixed into fluoride salts. The combination is liquid above 500 °C (932 °F), allowing it to flow through the reactor, which operates at near-atmospheric pressures. This liquid salt functions as a coolant for the nuclear fuel, replacing the high-pressure water cooling in older reactor designs. But if this fuel is exposed to air, instead of venting explosively as steam, it acts like lava and solidifies into rock.

Yes, the rock is radioactive, and you shouldn't go have a picnic on it, but it's not a cloud of radioactive gas that can blow across the continent; it's solid rock that can be cleaned up by safety teams with Geiger counters. It also has very low solubility in water, so it's comparatively safe even if it falls into the sea.

Source: Seaborg Technologies via IEEE Spectrum, Thomas Thor Associates and Switch 2020

more at link.......................

 

Comments?

[swansont]

Quote

Hopefully, there will be a lot of accidents because we will have a lot of these reactors. What we do, instead of reducing the likelihood, is reduce the consequence of even the worst disasters. 

Wut

 

They shoved all the downside/problems to the latter part of the article.

How does the reactor shut down? Can the decay heat keep the salt molten? How are they making electricity? As I recall, a huge problem in these reactors is primary-secondary leaks. How are they dealing with that? (it won’t be as bad as with liquid sodium, but I imagine it’s still an issue)

[beecee]

1 hour ago, swansont said:

Wut

 

They shoved all the downside/problems to the latter part of the article.

How does the reactor shut down? Can the decay heat keep the salt molten? How are they making electricity? As I recall, a huge problem in these reactors is primary-secondary leaks. How are they dealing with that? (it won’t be as bad as with liquid sodium, but I imagine it’s still an issue)

The "method in my madness" in posting this in the other thread, was that it seemingly did involve some alternative power sources discussions. 

Good questions and yes, they need to be answered. Actually until I discovered the article, I was unaware of this methodology.

[swansont]

9 hours ago, beecee said:

The "method in my madness" in posting this in the other thread, was that it seemingly did involve some alternative power sources discussions. 

Which would have been fine in a thread on alternative power, but not in science news, which need to focus on the linked article