DMT-Nexus member
Posts: 545 Joined: 28-Aug-2009 Last visit: 05-Apr-2013 Location: Alfheim
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Saidin wrote:Interesting statistics. I bet that is a normal uranium power plant as well.
There is a different type of nuclear power plant using Thorium:
Its building footprint is a fraction of the size of a normal power plant, t There is no chance of a meltdown. Very little radioactive waste. Does not produce weapons grade materials The energy contained in one kilogram of thorium equals 4000 tons of coal, and Thorium is far more plentiful than uranium.
The only reason for uranium power plants is to get plutonium... I'm just waiting for the first city to be built around one of these guys and all you pay is your HOA's ThirdEyeVision It's the third eye vision, five side dimension The 8th Light, is gonna shine bright tonight
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Sun Dragon
Posts: 1320 Joined: 30-Jan-2008 Last visit: 31-Mar-2023 Location: In between my thoughts
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http://www.thorium.tv/en...or/thorium_reactor_1.phpQuote:Like any nuclear reactor, thorium reactors will be hot and radioactive, necessitating shielding. The amount of radioactivity scales with the size of the plant. It so happens that thorium itself is an excellent radiation shield, but lead and depleted uranium are also suitable.
Smaller plants (100 megawatts), such as the Department of Energyβs small, sealed, transportable, autonomous reactor (SSTAR) will be 15 meters tall, 3 meters wide and weigh 500 tonnes, using only a few cm of shielding.
Because thorium reactors present no proliferation risk, and because they solve the safety problems associated with earlier reactors, they will be able to use reasonable rather than obsessive standards for security and reliability. If we can reach the $145-in-1971-dollars/kW milestone experienced by Commonwealth Edison in 1971, we can decrease costs for a 1-gigawatt plant to at most $780 million, rather than the $1,100 million to build such a plant today. In fact, you might be able to go as low as $220 million or below, if 80% of reactor costs truly are attributable to expensive anti-meltdown measures. A thorium reactor does not, in fact, need a containment wall. Putting the reactor vessel in a standard industrial building is sufficient.
Because thorium reactors will make nuclear reactors more decentralized. Because of no risk of proliferation or meltdown, thorium reactors can be made of almost any size. A 500 ton, 100MW SSTAR-sized thorium reactor could fit in a large industrial room, require little maintenance, and only cost $25 million. A hypothetical 5 ton, truck-sized 1 MW thorium reactor might run for only $250,000 but would generate enough electricity for 1,000 people for the duration of its operating lifetime, using only 20 kg of thorium fuel per year, running almost automatically, and requiring safety checks as infrequently as once a year. That would be as little as $200/year after capital costs are paid off, for a thousand-persons worth of electricity! An annual visit by a safety inspector might add another $200 to the bill. A town of 1,000 could pool $250K for the reactor at the cost of $250 each, then pay $400/year collectively, or $0.40/year each for fuel and maintenance. These reactors could be built by the thousands, further driving down manufacturing costs.
What, you ask, was the beginning of it all? And it is this...
Existence that multiplied itself For sheer delight of being And plunged into numberless trillions of forms So that it might Find Itself Innumerably. -Sri Aubobindo
Saidin is a fictional character, and only exists in the collective unconscious. Therefore, we both do and do not exist. Everything is made up as we go along, and none of it is real.
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Sun Dragon
Posts: 1320 Joined: 30-Jan-2008 Last visit: 31-Mar-2023 Location: In between my thoughts
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Here is an excellent news story on what really happened prior to the explosion, and how a confulence of many different mistakes led to the disaster. 60 Minutes - The Blowouthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLJHTTOSkpgWhat, you ask, was the beginning of it all? And it is this...
Existence that multiplied itself For sheer delight of being And plunged into numberless trillions of forms So that it might Find Itself Innumerably. -Sri Aubobindo
Saidin is a fictional character, and only exists in the collective unconscious. Therefore, we both do and do not exist. Everything is made up as we go along, and none of it is real.
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