Re: Nuclear Power

Antonio Fili wrote:
"Mishagam" <noemail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> ha scritto nel messaggio news:4775d983$0$4976$4c368faf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
dave.walters@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
The problem is that their is institutional largess and interests in
maintaining uranium fuel energy in the world, except, as you noted, in
Inida.

David
Liquid salt reactors will not have nuclear fuel (and most radioactivity) contained in metal tubes of fuel elements. They will be in conditions of permanent meltdown. And this very radioactive liquid will be pumped around! It will radically increase chances of radioactive pollution getting out of reactor and power plant.
Because of this I am pretty sure that liquid fuel molten salt reactors will never happen.
Also Thorium reactors require continuous reprocessing and much U-235 or Plutonium for starting Thorium nuclear cycle, and so I doubt that Thorium will ever have much role as nuclear fuel.


Even in a converted LWR , a MEU/Th (20% U-235/U;19% U-235/U+ Th) mixture needs half of the natural uranium per GWy (with no reprocessing at all) vs an once through LEU cycle;
I never read about this. can you provide link? why is Th/U-233 so much more efficient than U-238 / Pu ??
if you reprocess and recycle uranium 233 produced
in a U-235 + U-233 mixture (> 90 % fissile enrichment), then natural uranium needs drop to 1/6 or less than once through LEU
Is this in normal LWR? I read about thorium Nuclear reactors, I remembered that they can be almost, but not quite breeders with thermal neutrons in HWR and big attention to neutron economy.
And I believe that Uranium needs can be halved by reprocessing fuel for normal LWR.
The obvious conclusion is that reprocessing with thorium is important, but not strictly necessary

In a HWR I believe these numbers become even better, I'd be curious to know something about a thorium CANDU breeder, i.e. the possibility of concepting a "thermal" breeder without the complexity, the costs and the proliferation issues of plutonium fast breeders

At the least fast reactors can be REAL breeders - with Pu providing 3+ neutrons and Trans uraniums breaking up by fast neutrons.

.

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