In 2007, we used five billion tons of coal, 31 billion barrels of oil and five trillion cubic meters of natural gas, along with 65,000 tons of uranium to. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors request pdf researchgate. At the dawn of the nuclear industry, the united states manhattan project developed the atomic bomb, or real two models of atomic bombs, one using uranium 235 and one using plutonium 239. Dolan, in molten salt reactors and thorium energy, 2017. The thorium msr foundation stichting thorium msr is the organization behind thmsr. In 1964, eugene weinberg and his team built a working version of the moltensalt reactor msr at the oak ridge national laboratory ornl which operated until 1975, and which suspended the byproducts of thorium in a molten salt bath that allowed the reaction to be selfregulating ie. The large expensive breeding blanket of thorium salt was omitted in favor of neutron. Request pdf liquid fluoride thorium reactors the molten salt reactor.
Molten salt reactors incl liquid fluoride thorium reactor. Research and development of thorium based nuclear reactors, primarily the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr, msr design, has been or is now being done in the united states, united kingdom, germany, brazil, india, china, france, the czech republic, japan, russia, canada, israel, denmark and the netherlands. Maybe we can have them become interested in molten salt reactors such as liquid fluoride thorium reactor to provide power all the time, or all the time solarwind are not generating enough, replacing coal and oil. Novel equipment, such as nickelwool sponge cartridges, must be developed to filter and trap the noble metals to prevent build up. Some of the points may be slightly debatable or not applicable to all msrlftr designs, but i hope it paints a clear picture as to the difficulty in msrs. Theres no material sitting in a warehouse somewhere, getting ready to be put in the reactor and so on. Wyoming lftr energy alliance a nonprofit association. Today, it is more commonly known as liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr. Advantages of liquid fluoride thorium reactor in comparison. Armchair lftr enthusiast here thats liquid fluoride thorium reactor. This claim, although made in the report from the house of lords, has no basis in fact.
Ralph moir, who continues to help and encourage me and many other pilgrims, in our molten salt adventures journey. Liquid fission lf power was demonstrated at oak ridge national laboratory in the last century, then politically sidelined. In a normal watercooled uranium reactor were only able to burn up. But the graphite moderator still creates the possibility of a reactor core fire. What is a lftr, and how can a reactor be so safe molten. The generation iv reactor designs are attempts to do just that. Thorium an overview overview thorium isotopes isotopes of thorium nuclear power thorium fuel cycle liquid fluoride thorium reactor compounds thorium dioxide thorium tetrafluoride thorium iv carbide thorium iv chloride thorium iv iodide thorium iv orthosilicate thorium iv sulfide minerals aeschynitey althupite auerlite cleveite ekanite. First, we need to look at an extra bit of recent history in addition to the history, which. In a typical design, the liquid is pumped between a critical core and an external heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to a nonradioactive secondary salt.
Courtesy flibe energy the lftr is sorensens own spin on weinbergs thorium breeder reactor work from the 1960s. A nuclear reactor with passive safety benefits, that ran on an abundant material safe enough to hold in your hand, and that generated 1100th the waste of pressurizedwater reactors ran successfully for three years at. Perhaps these technical problems can be overcome, but why would anyone bother to try, knowing in advance that the msr plant will be uneconomic due to huge construction costs and operating costs, plus will explode and rain radioactive molten salt when not if the steam generator tubes leak. Thorium addresses that approach in this type of reactor, the fluoride reactor, by completely consuming the fuel. Lyons, it was never intended to be economical, and features no advantages of lftr. Physicist alvin weinberg worked on the manhattan project and later coinvented the pressurized water nuclear reactor. Apr 29, 2015 liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is an innovative design for the thermal breeder reactor that has important potential benefits over the traditional reactor design. I hope many politicians working with energy policy will read this book. The thoriumfueled variant called liquid fluoride thorium reactor, has been very exciting to many nuclear engineers. Every other reactor design in history had used fuel thats solid, not liquid. If thorium lftr reactors are so awesome, why hasnt. Juhaszl nasa glenn research center, cleveland, ohio 445 richard a. The first fuel was a highenriched 33% u235 uranium dissolved as uf4 in a lifbef2zrf4 salt. Number of 250 mwe nuclear reactors required by year to 2100.
How a cold warera nuclear power plant could save us from. Using thorium in a solid fueled, water cooled reactor, such as india is doing, does not give the safety and wastereducing benefits of a molten fueled, salt cooled reactor. Why didnt we go with the liquid sodium approach lftr. Uri gat, who introduced me to molten salt reactors in 1993 and dr. In early 2011, chinas academy of sciences launched a major research and development program on liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr technology, which utilizes u233. In lftrs, thorium offers what nuclear reactor designers call higher burnuptheres less of it in terms of volume and less longlived radioactive wastes to deal with afterwardthan uranium. That proved to be the most pivotal year in energy history, according to the us.
Robert hargraves has written articles and made presentations about the liquid fluoride thorium reactor and energy cheaper than from coal the only realistic way to dissuade nations from burning fossil fuels. Btw, i think we need a thread for general discussion of nuclear power and a thread for the integral fast reactor. Lf technology uses energyrich thorium andor uranium fuel dissolved in molten salt. Thorium is silvery and tarnishes black when it is exposed to air, forming thorium dioxide. Research and development of thoriumbased nuclear reactors, primarily the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr, msr design, has been or is now being done in the united states, united kingdom, germany, brazil, india, china, france, the czech republic, japan, russia, canada, israel, denmark and the netherlands. Andrew yang, an entrepreneur and democratic candidate for the 2020 presidential election, promises to make thorium molten salt reactors as part of his climate plan for achieving netzero emissions by 2050. Footage from teac3 and 3 additional kirk sorensen talks has been interwoven into thorium remix 2011, an extremely fast paced documentary about both the science behind thorium molten salt reactors, and the politics which froze development in the 70s. It operates at high temperatures and atmospheric pressure, and is hoped to provide a safe form of commercialscale nuclear energy it is considered inherently safe due to the nature of the process and the materials, unlike conventional nuclear power. This paper will focus on the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr design, an implementation of one such gen iv idea, the molten salt reactor. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr simply too dangerous thats why it was stopped. Who killed the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr. This book presents a lucid explanation of the workings of thoriumbased reactors. Weinberg and his men proved the efficacy of thorium reactors in.
Thorium ore is safer to mine because it is less radioactive than uranium ore. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor thorium nuclear energy. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading fluid fuel reactors. Its most prominent champion was alvin weinberg, who patented the lightwater reactor and was a director of the u. The thorium fuelled msr variant is sometimes referred to as the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr, utilizing u233 which has been bred in a liquid thorium salt blanket. Download it once and read it on your kindle device, pc, phones or tablets. Thorium energy can help check co2 and global warming, cut deadly air. Was it all about the money, or all about the weapons. More on why we need the liquid fluoride thorium reactor.
Thorium fuels can breed fissile uranium233 to be used in various kinds of nuclear reactors. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor is a type of molten salt reactor. Lftr or liquid fluoride thorium reactor is a safer, cleaner, and more efficient nuclear reactor. History get youtube premium get youtube tv best of youtube. Its thorium, and particularly the lftrthe liquid fluoride thorium reactor. Moltensaltfueled reactors msrs supply the nuclear fuel in the form of a molten salt mixture.
Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr simply too dangerous. So when we talk about the waste, one of the things that skeptics of the liquid fuel thorium reactor ignore is the fact that because the core is a liquid, you can continually process waste, even. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors are seen as the future of energy. These historical heaps are archives for tracing weathering and leaching. Alvin weinbergs liquid fuel reactors atomic insights. At the dawn of the nuclear industry, the united states manhattan project developed the atomic bomb, or real two models of atomic. Oct 20, 2019 heres a post i wrote for a coursera course i was taing. As the search for cheap, safe and noncarbon emitting sources of energy continues, a band of scientists say the answer may be nuclear reactors. Rarick2 and rajmohan rangarajan3 cleveland state university, cleveland, ohio 44115 an overall system analysis approach is used to propose potential conceptual designs of. Fluid fluorides and chlorides reactor research and development on molten salt reactors msrs papers, books, and reports. Thorium molten salt reactors, without the need for all the backup safety systems that u 235 nuclear plants have, should be no more expensive to build than coalfired plants.
High efficiency nuclear power plants using liquid fluoride thorium reactor technology albert j. The moltensalt reactor experiment msre was an experimental molten salt reactor at the oak ridge national laboratory ornl researching this technology through the 1960s. Weinberg personally like the molten salt reactor using thorium as the main fuel, for use in the civilian industry. If thorium lftr reactors are so awesome, why hasnt anyone. The processing development that showed promise of accomplishing this was a laboratory demonstration of the chemical steps in a liquidliquid extraction process for removing protactinium and uranium from molten fluoride salts. The goal here is to present the basics of a lftr design and the inherent advantages and problems with such a design. A cold warera liquidfueled reactor design could transform thorium. Thorium is a weakly radioactive metallic chemical element with the symbol th and atomic number 90. Oct 18, 2014 a liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from thorium, and has the potential to solve todays energyclimate crisis. The liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr, a type of molten salt reactor, is being touted by many as the best solution to thoriumpowered nuclear energy.
The thorium 232 captures neutrons from the reactor core to become protactinium233, which decays 27day halflife to u233. Flibe energy with its liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr concept, is one of the three companies that was today awarded a gain nuclear energy ne voucher to accelerate the innovation and application of its technology. Much of their work culminated with the moltensalt reactor experiment msre. A brief history of the liquidfluoride reactor energy. It operates at high temperatures and atmospheric pressure, and is hoped to provide a safe form of commercialscale nuclear energy. Molten salt reactor technology is long overdue for a reemergence, and this book is an excellent summary of history, theory, and current state of the art. It also has an appealing history of origination, a history that deserves to be fully told in a book one day. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors generate no highlevel waste material. Molten salt reactors are well suited to thorium fuel, as normal fuel. Dewan and massie founded transatomic the same month. In these types of reactors, thorium and uranium fluorides are combined into a salt mixture thats heated to a. That april, sorensen launched the first of the molten salt startup companies, huntsvillebased flibe energy. Safety is achieved with a freeze plug which if power is cut allows the fuel to drain into subcritical geometry in a catch basin.
Uranium is so last century enter thorium, the new green nuke. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr pronounced lifter in short, is the first reactor in history to have its own internet based fan club. They commissioned a report wash1222 that was highly critical of the liquidfluoride reactor concept and praised the liquid metal fast breeder. First of all lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor is not a liquid sodium reactor. Its aim is to educate people about the use of thorium in molten salt reactor technology, because we believe it can play a vital role in solving todays energy problems. Ironically, this report omitted nearly all of the inherent safety of the liquidfluoride reactor, its fast response to transients, its neutron economy, proliferationresistance, and reprocessability. Or, simply lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor as proposed by flibe energys kirk sorensen. The reactor cant melt down because the fuelcoolant is already liquid and the reactor vessel is designed to handle even higher temperatures. A liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from thorium, and has the potential to solve todays energyclimate crisis. Using that template, the energy from thorium team helped produce a design for a new liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or lftr pronounced lifter, which, according to estimates by sorensen and. A liquid fluoride thorium reactor would be a compact facility, very energyefficient and safe, that would produce the energy we need day and night, and without respect to weather conditions. In june of that year, the mol ten salt reactor experiment msre achieved criticality for the first time at oak ridge national laboratory ornl in tennessee. When people started to do research in the field of nuclear energy in the midnineties, the molten salt reactors were soon invented. Nuclear technology abandoned decades ago might give us safer.
Sorensens assignment was to look for an energy source that would be suitable to power a moon base. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr offers promise for the future. Lftr is fluoride based liquid fuel, that use the thorium dissolved in salt mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. Early in the 2000s, a young man called kirk sorensen, just after finishing grad school, worked with a group at nasa that did advanced technology work. Heres a post i wrote for a coursera course i was taing. Flibe energys concept for a liquidfluoride thorium reactor, or lftr. Energy cheaper than coal is a fantastic fact based book on the problems surrounding our use of energy, and the alternatives that we can pursue. October 8, 2018, marks the fiftieth anniversary of the operation of the moltensalt reactor experiment msre using uranium233 as a fuel. This book discusses the first two, because they involve molten salt. Update on the liquid fluoride thorium reactor projects in. The concept is simple, yet thoroughly investigated. The thorium232 captures neutrons from the reactor core to become protactinium233, which decays 27day halflife to u233.
Highlevel waste is an unavoidable product of nuclear fission. High efficiency nuclear power plants using liquid fluoride. Mar 10, 2017 to do so efficiently requires a very different nuclear reactor than the kind we use today not one that uses solid fuel rods, but a reactor in which the fuel is kept in a liquid state. Feb 16, 2012 in early 2011, chinas academy of sciences launched a major research and development program on liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr technology, which utilizes u233 that has been bred in a. As director of oak ridge national laboratory he led development of liquid fuel reactors, including walkawaysafe liquid fluoride thorium reactors with inexhaustible fuel. Molten salt reactors, aqueous homogeneous reactors, fluoride reactors, chloride reactors, liquid metal reactors and why liquid fission kindle edition by lane, james a. There is a great deal of useful information in this document.
U233 is a superior nuclear fuel, producing enough neutrons through its fission. Why didnt we go with the liquid sodium approach lftr for our nuclear reactors. A tutorial history of the development of liquid fuel nuclear reactors aqueous, metal, and molten salt, which has the potential to provide safe, carbon free, affordable energy that can address global warming and foster prosperous lifestyles in the developing nations that. Molten salt reactors are generation iv nuclear fission reactors that use molten salt as either the primary reactor coolant or as the fuel itself.
Buy what is a lftr, and how can a reactor be so safe molten salt reactors, including liquid fluoride thorium reactors. Molten salt reactors, including liquid fluoride thorium reactors. May 04, 2012 is thorium a magic bullet for our energy problems. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors an old idea in nuclear power gets reexamined robert hargraves and ralph moir what if we could turn back the clock to 1965 and have an energy doover. He notes that in a liquid thorium reactor, theres no point at which you can divert material.
The direct precursor of the lftr concept is the molten salt reactor that ran at oak ridge. Sorensen examining the history of thorium molten salt reactor development at oak ridge. Refined thorium chozandrias76regolithdeveopment wiki. Fluidfueled reactors known as liquid fluoride thorium reactors lftrs, pronounced lifters can act as breeders, producing as much fuel as they consume. Now what with ryan duffy covers some of the innovative things people are doing about some of the worlds largest problems. Request pdf liquid fluoride thorium reactors the molten salt reactor experiment msre achieved criticality for the first time at oak ridge national laboratory ornl in tennessee. Weinberg led the lab in designing a number of other reactors. We discussed yesterday why the lftr is a totally safe alternative not just for fossil fuels. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a heterogeneous msr design which breeds its u233 fuel from a fertile blanket of lithiumberyllium fluoride flibe salts with thorium fluoride. Liquid fluoride thorium reactors page 3 tesla motors club.
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