Thread:Sentry 616/@comment-27144409-20160823182731

A while ago I brought up thorium and MSRs on the OC Artwork II thread.

For those of you who are curious I will discuss it here. Mind you I'm already a fan of the concept, so this is probably biased.

Molten salt reactors can be built to run on theorium with small amounts of uranium or plutonium as a catalyst or waste fuel pellets. Generous estimates place say that our current stockpile of nuclear waste could meet the current energy requirements of the United States for 70 years.

Thorium is said to be four times as abundant as uranium, it's safer and easier to mine, it would be a far more effcient power source, the time required for the waste to decay into a safe state is measured in centuries instead of tens of millenia, and thorium is so difficult to weaponize as to be grossly impractical. Supposedly you could have half a ton in the basement without anything happening. (I suspect this is an exaggeration.)

For their specific efficiency, because so much more of the energy in the thorium is used, one pound of thorium could potentially yield as much electrical energy as 300 pounds of uranium or 3,500,000 pounds of coal. This is amazing, but a best case scenario of thorium's efficiency weighed against a worst case level of efficiency for uranium. Our current needs could be met for centuries with the current domestic supply.

Molten salt reactors have a few more features worth noting. With current technology the cooling towers could be eliminated, cutting construction costs. With little pressure on the liquid thorium, there is far less risk for an explosion (like at Fukushima). While MSRs would be smaller than current reactors and possess a smaller output (on averge an MSR would generate 50 megawatts, and the average existing nuclear power plant produces 1,000 megawatts [1 gigawatt].), they could be much closer to what they're powering. The average nuclear power plant loses 20-30% of its output to the inefficiency of the grid due to the long distances the current has to travel. For the piece de resistance, there is a cooled solid salt plug designed as a failsafe that requires no power or intervention. On the contrary, when power to the cooling systems is lost, the liquid thorium in the salt melts the plug, opening the flow into containment tanks (which are lined with carbon tubes to stabilize the reaction in some designs). 