tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post5675360865945649082..comments2024-02-16T17:52:44.944-06:00Comments on The Nuclear Green Revolution: Not Quite my father's Reactor, and not my father's reactor Industry: 3Charles Bartonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01125297013064527425noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post-40463477568995860462015-11-16T11:22:42.506-06:002015-11-16T11:22:42.506-06:00Last I checked, the Li-6 and Li-7 in FLiBe each ha...Last I checked, the Li-6 and Li-7 in FLiBe each have pathways to create H-3 from the neutron spectrum. Thus there will be tritium in the coolant, requiring some way to capture or contain. And would likely dismiss the direct cycle for power generation. But I do believe the fuel pebbles will contain some tritium from fissions and decays, so it would be less than other MSR and LFTR designs. Or am I missing something?Jim L.noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post-84692291428111658102015-11-16T09:17:16.873-06:002015-11-16T09:17:16.873-06:00It may be possible to keep the primary to secondar...It may be possible to keep the primary to secondary salt heat exchange inside the core of a MSR, in which case the fissil load will be kept 100% inside the core. Of course the heat exchange would have to be replaced every few years, but since the core of at least some MSRs will have to be replaced every 7 or 8 years, that should not be such a big deal.Charles Bartonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01125297013064527425noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7597656451205429515.post-56772877003070248022015-11-15T18:14:48.756-06:002015-11-15T18:14:48.756-06:00Charles - thanks for your posts and discussions of...Charles - thanks for your posts and discussions of current work in advanced reactor design. The UCB salt-cooled pebble bed addresses something that I haven't seen discussed yet that I've been wondering about. As I understand the 'classic' MSR, the fuel salt is a uniformly mixed solution of fertile (U or Th) salt, fissile (U233, U235, actinide)carrier and eutectic salts that keep the mixture liquid in the operating temperature range. The salt mix circulates through the reactor core, where the neutronics (neutron moderation, reflection, and absorption) are right to make fission happen. Outside of the core, fission doesn't happen, but heat gets transferred into another salt loop and is removed from the reactor vessel.<br /><br />Since all of the core salt has the same composition, that means that extra fissile is needed in the fuel load. How much extra depends on the relative volume of the core and the heat transfer loop. If the core has the same volume as the heat transfer loop, then twice the fissile load is needed since only half of the fuel salt is in the core at any one time. The core-to-total salt volume ratio is obviously a key design factor.<br /><br />Keeping all of the fuel in the core and having only cooling/heat transfer salt in the heat exchangers minimizes the fissile required to start and run the reactor. This lets more reactors start and operate for a given amount of fissile material, which seems to me to be very desirable. Of course, there's a lot more to reactor design!<br /><br />I want to see rapid expansion of nuclear heat for power and industry. I'd like to stretch the fissile as far as possible.Andrew Jaremkohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07781060305332803073noreply@blogger.com