User:IamM1rv/thorcon

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Thorcon is a project which proposed to build a modular

Molten salt reactor style nuclear reactor
. It is design by Martingale, Inc. of Florida in the United States of America.

Included in the proposal are licensing, testing, manufacturing, installation, licensing, operation and decommissioning. Once production is in full swing, it is expected to build 100 modules per year.[1]

Technical

The proposed station will be rated at 1000

fissile uranium per full-power year, about half as much as a light water reactor with the same electrical output. Modern molten-salt reactor technologies could be half as expensive in terms of cost per megawatt.[2]

File:Thorcon nuclear island.jpg
Thorcon Nuclear Island (fully underground). Click on image to enlarge.

The proposed Thorcon reactor design uses a mixture of

molten salt reactor and liquid fluoride thorium reactor
.

Fuel and waste

Thorcon is not a breeder reactor.[3] In stead it requires a supply of new fuel, like today's solid fueled reactors. Scientist Ralph Moir claims this process helps in the nonproliferation of nuclear materials, meaning there will be less weapons grade nuclear materials available in the world.[4] Previously ran experiments back this opinion.[5]

Thorcon uses replaceable, sealed, nuclear-grade stainless steel containment units called Cans. There are two silos for each operating can so that one unit can be operating while the previous, spent module can cool down for 4 years, allowing the radioactive decay of short lived radioactive elements. After this period the spent Can is removed and replaced with new Can.

Peter Karamoskos, of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons claims the waste will still be excess citing more plants producing materials with half-life's still in the hundreds of thousands to millions of years range.[6]

Design

File:Thorcon can and primary.png
Thorcon primary loop and containment (the Can). This Can is a sealed unit containing the reactor vessel (Pot), a primary loop pump (PLP) and primary heat exchanger (PHX). Click on image to enlarge.

Thorcon is designed as a large yet modular reactor system. No online

molten salt reactor and liquid fluoride thorium reactor
more details.

The top of the Silos is about 29 meters underground. The secondary salt is a mixture of sodium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. It is essentially bare fuel carrier salt, without uranium or thorium. This fuel-salt-heated secondary salt is pumped out of the top of the Primary Heat Exchanger to a Secondary Heat Exchanger. Where it transfers its heat to a mixture of sodium nitrate and potassium nitrate solar salt. The solar salt in turn transfers its heat to a steam loop, creating super critical steam, and also reheating that steam to increase the plant’s efficiency.

ThorCon uses block type construction similar to the shipyard industry. Thorcon's principal engineer and architect, and former MIT professor, Jack Devanney, claims that applying the block type construction to nuclear construction will afford the high productivity currently seen in shipyards.

A panel line manufactures smaller blocks that are the combined to large block modules. The blocks can weigh hundreds of tonnes. After assembly the blocks are dropped into place in a dock. The use of reinforced concrete, which is difficult to standardize and produce in panel lines, is minimized.

File:Thorcon membrane wall cooling schematic.png
The Thorcon membrane wall cooling system schematic. Click on image to enlarge.
File:Thorcon silo and silo hall.png
Schematic cross section of the Thorcon silo and silo hall. Click on image to enlarge.

Safety

By the nature of the molten-salt reactor, you can not have a melt down or explosion like Fuji or Chernobyl. Thorcon is a walk-away safe plant design. This implies that no operator action, electricity supply, support systems, or coolant injection must be needed in the event of an accident. The Thorcon system relies heavily on inherent safety and passive safety.[7][8]

As a

fluorides
, providing an inherent chemical and physical sequestration of fission products. These physical and chemical features of the fluoride salt eliminate driving forces to push radionuclides into the environment.

The large number of containment barriers combined with an always operating passive containment cooling system, and the lack of pressure or other energetic driving forces, plus full under ground nature of the entire nuclear island would help to contain radioactivity in event of failure.

Being a simplified converter reactor, there is no fuel reprocessing equipment onsite. This avoids leaks, corrosion and other potential hazards with reprocessing equipment.

Image sequence of Thorcon block assembly progression. Click to enlarge and start the image sequence

ThorCon is a simpler and smaller structure than today's large ships that are rapidly manufactured in large numbers by many shipyards in the world today. [citation needed]

See also

References

As of this edit, this article uses content from "Official Site", which is licensed in a way that permits reuse under the

Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License, but not under the GFDL
. All relevant terms must be followed.

  1. ^ a b "Martingale reveals its ThorCon liquid-fuel reactor design". World Nuclear News. World Nuclear News. Retrieved 6 April 2015.
  2. ^ Daniel, Ari. "A New Kind Of Nuclear Reactor?". WBR.org. Boston Public Radio News Station. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  3. ^ "Molten Salt Reactors". World Nuclear Association. World Nuclear Association. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  4. ^ Moir, Ralph. "Nonproliferation role of 231Pa and 232U from a fusion breeder for the thorium molten salt reactor" (PDF). http://thoriumenergyalliance.com/. Thorium Energy Alliance. Retrieved 9 April 2015. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  5. ^ Gat, Uri; Engel, J. R.; Dodds, H. L. (28 February 1991), "The Molten Salt Reactor Option for Beneficial Use of Fissile Material from Dismantled Weapons", AAAS session on Fissile Materials from Nuclear Arms Reduction (PDF), Oak Ridge National Laboratory, TN
  6. ^ Rees, Eifion. "Don't believe the spin on thorium being a greener nuclear option". The Guardian. The Guardian. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  7. ^ Warmflash, David. "Thorium Power Is the Safer Future of Nuclear Energy". discovermagazine.com/. Discovery Magazine. Retrieved 9 April 2015.
  8. ^ "The 500MW molten salt nuclear reactor: Safe, half the price of light water, and shipped to order". Extreme Tech. Ziff Davis. Retrieved 9 April 2015.