this post was submitted on 03 Oct 2022
16 points (90.0% liked)
Nuclear Power
233 readers
2 users here now
A community discussing nuclear power, including fission and fusion. The goal is to talk about generated nuclear power, so avoid simply talking about stars or something unless it is relevant.
Rules
- Stay on topic
- Behave yourself
- No trolling, spamming etc.
- Follow lemmy.ml’s code of conduct
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
One of the reasons that thorium is a much better fuel is the waste profile. It produces far less waste, and the waste that it does produce has a much shorter half-life. It also produces a lot of isotopes that are useful for medical purposes like cancer treatments.
And another great thing about LFTRs is that they don't use water as coolant, so they can safely operate in situations of drought, and even in deserts.
A powered grid that would utilize mostly this type of reactor wouldn't face the types of problems the French grid did during this summer's heat waves.
All in all, a promising technology.
Yeah great point, I also read that molten salt is safer than water coolant because it turns solid when the reaction stops. So, you don't have to worry about it leaking into the soil and contaminating the environment.
Even better, it means that you can abandon the reactor and it will not produce a melt down. It is inherently safe.