Nuclear power's great leap forward
The Chinese Academy of Science announced on January 26 that it planned to finance the development of a program to develop thorium fuelled molten salt reactors (TFMSR). This is the first of four "strategic leader in science and technology projects" that the Chinese Academy of Science will be supporting.
The head of the Chinese TFMSR program is Dr Jiang Mianheng, a graduate of Drexel University with a PhD in electrical engineering. His father, Jiang Zemin, was the President of the People's Republic of China from 1993 to 2003. This gives an indication of the importance the Chinese leadership attaches to the TFMSR program.
It is also a clear and important endorsement of the benefits of the TFMSR, namely:
– Excellent nuclear and passive safety features;
– Greatly improved proliferation resistance;
– Significantly reduced high active waste production;
– Excellent resource utilisation as a result of the very high burn-up achieved;
– Overall economics that offer the prospect of being competitive with coal.
The decision clearly demonstrates China’s commitment to developing the TFMSR as a major energy source for the future. One can only applaud this far-sighted decision by the Chinese Academy of Science.
The Academy stated that"The scientific goal is to develop a new generation of nuclear energy systems [and to achieve commercial] use [in] 20 years or so. We intend to complete the technological research needed for this system and to assert intellectual property rights to this technology."
While the announcement refers to a 20 year program, rapid progress can be expected in the next five years towards a demonstration plant.
This program will place China at the forefront of development of truly competitive nuclear power suitable for large scale power production as well as supporting desalination, hydrogen production, and other high temperature chemical processing, due to the characteristics of TFMSR.
The TFMSR program will see China leading the world in the development and application of high temperature materials, and quite probably the use of the Brayton power generating cycle.
It is tempting to speculate about how other countries may react to what many observers see as a “Sputnik moment”, to borrow Barack Obama’s phrase.
President Obama, in his recent State of the Union speech, pursued the Sputnik analogy when he said, “we're telling America's scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we'll fund the Apollo projects of our time”.
He went on to say, Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all."
So, can we expect to see the Chinese announcement catalyse the countries and researchers who have been working on TFMSR’s for years to put together a team to deliver a second TFMSR program?
Given the intellectual capital developed 50 years ago by the talented team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, under the leadership of the visionary Dr Alvin M Weinberg, it would be surprising if a team were not assembled and funded to deliver a second TFMSR program.
This would represent a golden opportunity for Australia to join an international consortium to develop what, in the opinion of many scientists and nuclear engineers, represents the most promising of the "generation IV" reactor systems.
If Australia were to do this, then it would have available a nuclear reactor technology that has high enough temperatures to power hydrogen production and a host of other high temperature chemical processes, with no resultant carbon emissions. In addition, it would develop a world-leading position in high temperature material and metallurgy.
Competition is good for the overall development and deployment of TFMSR technology, given the various technological options that are available. The world requires TFMSR to meet the challenge of clean energy production in the coming years. Therefore, the Chinese announcement is a great step forward, which many observers, over the years, have been arguing for. The coming months may well see similar announcements around the world.
The question is, will Australia be able to grasp the opportunity that the development of a TFMSR represents, or will we be buying our reactors and other high temperature technologies from China in 15 to 20 years time?
Gerry Grove-White is a former mechanical engineer who worked as a technical operations engineer on MAGNOX, CANDU reactors and the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at Dounreay in the UK. He is also the Australian representative for IThEO, a not-for profit organisation seeking to promote the adoption of thorium fuelled molten salt reactors worldwide. This article is published with the permission of IThEO. www.itheo.org
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A number of specific questions have been asked which I will attempt to answer.
Firstly Thorium is fertile, and when is absorbs a neutron it undergoes a decay chain to produce U233, which is fissile. Initially a TFMSR would use U235 or Pu239 to start the reactor. The reactor would then be fuelled by U233 that has been bred within the reactor. With a fleet of TFMSR's there would be sufficent U233 for start up.
The TFMSR's performance is better than anyother reactor system due to the much higher burn-up achieved, since the fuel is liquid and does not suffer from any limits as solid fuelled reactors do.
My personal view is that TFMSR's could be competitive with coal as something like $60 to 80 /MWhr. Fully developed I believe non-volcanic geothermal energy could achieve $100/MWhr at the busbars.
In any consideration of costs there is always the issue of which discount rate to use and that is a subject all on its own.
Thorium Fuelled Molten Salt reactors
Given Gerry Grove-White's recent involvement with the geothermal industry, I would be interested to hear his thoughts on the likely practical viability and economics of geothermal versus thorium fuelled molten salt reactors for electricity generation.
More fiddling - we need to put the fire out.
"The Academy stated that"The scientific goal is to develop a new generation of nuclear energy systems [and to achieve commercial] use [in] 20 years or so"
Great, perhpas in 20 years we will have a commercial reactor that answers some of the problems produced by nuclear fission.
20 years is too long.
What if it takes 25 or 30, will it be scalable, how long will it take to build 17,500 1 MW reactors ( to replace fossil fuel energy sources ), what about the expertise required.
Clearly this "solution" is more than 3 -4 decades away at absolute best.
We do not have time for this.
great leap forward
Stop talking about alternative power generation, you may affend the investors in our brown coal fired power stations, isn't that right Bob?
Thorium fuel
Gerry, unless I am mistaken natural Thorium is mainly a furtile rather than fissile material. Hence when used as a blanket material by the absorbtion of a neutron it becomes a fissile material which will fission if it absorbs yet another neutron. If this is correct then what is the initial fissile fuel in the core? And why is this reactor any more attractive then any other breeder/converter?
Australian opportunity??
Nuclear technology expertise has almost disappeared in Australia. I hold little hope for any Australian TFMSR development, when ANSTO is currently in hot water over safety breaches to its Argentinian-built(!!) Lucas Heights reactor (ABC-TV Lateline 8feb11).
At least Australia has thorium reserves to mine.
My motivation
I neither seek or recive any compensation, monetary or otherwise from my efforts in promoting Thorium Fuelled Molten Salt Reactors. I am motivated in this effort because I believe that this techology offers huge benefits for our future. This belief is based on extensive study and 45 years experience as a Professional Engineer in the power generation industry
Gerry Grove-White is a former
How much do you charge an hour???? Gerry Grove-White is a former mechanical engineer who worked as a technical operations engineer on MAGNOX, CANDU reactors and the Prototype Fast Reactor (PFR) at Dounreay in the UK. He is also the Australian representative for IThEO, a not-for profit organisation seeking to promote the adoption of thorium fuelled molten salt reactors worldwide. This article is published with the permission of IThEO. www.itheo.org
Thorium fueled nuclear reactor systems
Please note significant Australian research on accelerator driven nuclear systems.
Thorium
Great idea and I hope it works. Fore as long as I can remember, and I am getting on, breakthrough nuclear technology is just 20 years away, and will be much cheaper. However, in the meantime it is inexorably getting more expensive, even without the decommissioning.
On the other hand there are a host of renewables that are here now, being installed now, and getting cheaper.
kickstart to stalled Indian program
I'm glad the chinese have taken an interest to this promising technology. Whilst Indian scientists were originally the pioneers 1o years ago, their efforts stalled. Maybe the chinese can convert the promise into production based energy systems. Australia should watch with interest, both because of our significant mineral sands deposits & as a credible energy alternative.
CO2isnotevil
Now if we just dump the green renewable rebates and the waste that is geosequestration and put the money into something that works we can have the clean future so beloved of the enviros. In the meantime keep burning coal and lets keep our cheap energy advantage while we train our nuclear operators of the future.
At last Thorium makes it onto the public agenda
All the benefits of nuclear and non of the disadvantages.
Link that with the production of biochar to capture carbon instead of these stupid carbon storage sinks that are currently flavour of the month, and we finally do have a win-win fix for CO2 emissions. Pity we have to wait for China to set the agenda.