- #1
- 5,117
- 20
Several times now, I've been in contact with people who talked about the "travelling wave reactor", but I can't find any "official" information about it.
The only thing I could find that sounded somewhat serious is in MIT's "Technology Review":
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/
Is this a joke, or is it more serious and in that case, has anybody any extra information about it ?
It sounds simple: a small layer of highly enriched U-235 "feeds" a natural uranium block that is transformed slowly in Pu, and a "wave" of burning fuel travels through the block. But I see tons of problems with that design, the most obvious one to me being that you will never ever get enough "useful neutrons" that way to keep the chain reaction going and the breeding going.
The only thing I could find that sounded somewhat serious is in MIT's "Technology Review":
http://www.technologyreview.com/energy/22114/
Is this a joke, or is it more serious and in that case, has anybody any extra information about it ?
It sounds simple: a small layer of highly enriched U-235 "feeds" a natural uranium block that is transformed slowly in Pu, and a "wave" of burning fuel travels through the block. But I see tons of problems with that design, the most obvious one to me being that you will never ever get enough "useful neutrons" that way to keep the chain reaction going and the breeding going.