- #1
mesa
Gold Member
- 695
- 38
I would imagine it could be difficult to make drastic changes to current nuclear technologies however with the current political and general population consensus about nuclear energy does it make sense to try a radically different approach to nuclear power production?
Thorium has come up several times on the forum (especially in regards to MSR technologies) and from what I have read some problems require worked out such as delayed neutrons for power control, corrosion and tritium production (although many scientists in ORNL thought these issue could be worked out), even power distribution in the reactor and what would happen if one or more feed lines to the reactor went offline.
I have read links provided about using thorium to displace the use of fissile materials in current nuclear power plants and it seems like a logical first step but with a wary public would it be more worthwhile investing time in MSR reactors picking up where we left off at ORNL in the 70's?
Thorium has come up several times on the forum (especially in regards to MSR technologies) and from what I have read some problems require worked out such as delayed neutrons for power control, corrosion and tritium production (although many scientists in ORNL thought these issue could be worked out), even power distribution in the reactor and what would happen if one or more feed lines to the reactor went offline.
I have read links provided about using thorium to displace the use of fissile materials in current nuclear power plants and it seems like a logical first step but with a wary public would it be more worthwhile investing time in MSR reactors picking up where we left off at ORNL in the 70's?