DailyDirt: Next-Generation Fission Energy?
from the urls-we-dig-up dept
Petroleum prices are relatively low right now, but there are no guarantees that the price of oil will remain low for very long. Progress on biofuels and fusion aren't great bets for the impatient, but there's an existing energy source with some serious growth potential: nuclear fission. Okay, we've been talking about advances in nuclear energy for a while, too, but the barriers are mostly economic/regulatory, not in the engineering or science.- Molten-salt nuclear reactors have been on the cusp of creating a much safer next-generation path for nuclear energy. Molten-salt reactors have passive safety features and can even get rid of some nuclear waste while generating energy. However, cheap petroleum and the high cost of getting a building permit for a new nuclear power plant... have delayed these fission energy developments. [url]
- The Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) is the only underground nuclear waste repository in the US -- located outside of Carlsbad, New Mexico, in a salt mine. There was an accident involving the "wrong kind" of kitty litter that caused some radioactive material to be released and for the facility to shut down temporarily. Currently, some progress is being made to keep WIPP operational and continue storing long-lived radioactive waste. [url]
- A bunch of companies are developing smaller nuclear reactors for commercial use -- generating only a few megawatts or a few dozen megawatts of electricity using reactors about the size of a shipping container (or smaller). It might be easier/cheaper to get these smaller reactors into operation, but the real question is whether or not these designs prove to be significantly safer. [url]
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Filed Under: energy, fission, molten salt reactor, nuclear, nuclear energy, radioactive waste, waste isolation pilot plant, wipp
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
barriers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: barriers
On the other hand, after their initial construction, they don't consume thousands of tons of coal per day with the associated mining and transportation cost (financial and environmental)... and the cost of storing the resulting ash.
Just saying.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: barriers
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
All that advance physics....
Talk about Rube Goldberg.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: All that advance physics....
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: ..and all of it to boil water.
That’s why boiling water is such a wonderfully useful way to harness energy.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
As long as it doesn't involve extremely high temperatures or pressures. But if we had really cheap fusion power it would probably make more sense to use it to extract hydrogen from water and then use that to fuel vehicles. Putting a fusion reactor in a car sounds expensive (Mr. Fusion notwithstanding).
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
And yes, DIRECTLY powering a vehicle via fusion probably won't be for a LONG time (may require room temp superconductors). Much more likely is using fusion power to make electricity to charge battery-powered electric cars, or to split water into hydrogen and oxygen for PERFECTLY CLEAN combustion engines, or fuel cells in electric cars as opposed to batteries.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re:
"Petroleum prices are relatively low right now, but there are no guarantees that the price of oil will remain low for very long."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re:
How you got from that to nuclear powered cars I have no idea.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re: Re: Re: Re:
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Pandora's Promise
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
The kitty litter thing at WIPP is just so much facepalm caused by someone else. Someone thinking they were doing "the right thing" by going green! and not thinking things through and swapping out inorganic absorbent media (clay based kitty litter) for organic absorbent media (wheat based kitty litter). Yep, clay doesn't burn and wheat does, so when absorbing something that gets hot with time which brand do you prefer? That's right. If it doesn't say Gritty Kitty, IT STINKS!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]