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Psychic powers are more believable than something ignoring the square cube law.

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File 132282310126.png - (150.99KB , 1000x1000 , Thorium power please.png )

LFTR Awareness Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)02:51 No. 19186 ID: 84b916

Because General discussion isn't general enough for me. /sci/bro here, dumping some of the good news of nuclear power:
The Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactor.
tl;dr History, there were two competeing nuclear reactor designs. One was made for commercial and civilian use, with inherent safety designs and extrememly high energy efficiency. The other was built to produce lots of Uranium-235, which can be weaponized, and could also incidentally produce a little extra power on the side.
This competition being during the Cold War, the first one got mothballed and buried, while the second one became the de-facto nuclear reactor design because of it's widespread military application.
Cue the 70's, and suddenly everyone hates any mention of nuclear power, and the social stigma is such that the old researchers couldn't make any headway on their own, until about 40 years later.
In 2006 a fellow by the name of Kirk Sorensen rediscovered the old research notes for the first design while working in a government administrative position, and since then has managed to muster some level of interest in an advanced version of this design named the LFTR.
Today, China is now in direct competition with America to produce the first successfully mass produceable LFTR's as an answer to their energy crisis and heavy pollution, but are at a slight disadvantage due to all the nuclear engineers who know this stuff already are taying put in the States. However, we are at a huge legal and social disadvantage due to the decades-old stigma against 'nuclear' anything, and the extreme red tape of the Department of Nuclear Energy.
I will now begin dumping relevant infopics.

Expand all images

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)02:55 No. 19187 ID: 84b916
File 132282330194.png - (2.46MB , 938x4167 , LFTR infographic.png )

Some relevant links.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_breeder_reactor#Breeder_reactor_development_and_notable_breeder_re
actors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_reprocessing
www.nirs.org/factsheets/lovinsonifretc.pdf
http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/pub/2010/5/a-thorium-future
http://www.thesciencecouncil.com/george-stanford/195-the-ifr-vs-the-lftr-an-exchange-of-emails.html
http://skirsch.com/politics/globalwarming/ifrQandA.htm

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:01 No. 19188 ID: 84b916
File 132282369069.png - (132.15KB , 860x532 , LFTR atomic breakdown.png )

The man in the image is Kirk Sorensen.
He currently runs a company named FliBe energy, meant to be a corporate base for distributing marketable LFTR's in the future, once the red tape is dealt with.
More links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4
http://theenergycollective.com/charlesbarton/64177/what-are-problems-lftr-technology

>>	4b1c10.jpg Lavender Sweety Belle 4b1c10 Bamump 2011/12/02(Fri)03:02 No. 19189 ID: 4b1c10 uncanny, irc was just chatting about energy earlier... i still think that manual power overcomes all

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:02 No. 19190 ID: 84b916 File 132282372401.png - (758.32KB , 1280x720 , LFTR speaker.png ) >>19188 Woops, this is the guy.

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:03 No. 19191 ID: 84b916 File 132282382025.png - (1.19MB , 856x1834 , LFTR big future.png ) >>19189 I don't bother with the tgchan IRC. Anything good on there?

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:05 No. 19192 ID: 84b916 File 132282393322.jpg - (98.28KB , 978x656 , LFTR blocky comparison.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:06 No. 19193 ID: 84b916 File 132282396615.jpg - (951.61KB , 700x4350 , LFTR China.jpg ) This is China on the move.

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:07 No. 19194 ID: 84b916 File 132282407312.jpg - (66.61KB , 650x474 , LFTR direct comparison.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:08 No. 19195 ID: 84b916 File 132282411931.jpg - (60.98KB , 657x487 , LFTR energy comparison.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:09 No. 19196 ID: 84b916 File 132282415033.jpg - (1.63MB , 1660x2155 , LFTR energy cycle.jpg )

>>	4b1c10.jpg Lavender Sweety Belle 4b1c10 Bamump 2011/12/02(Fri)03:10 No. 19197 ID: 4b1c10 >>19191 other then just this, seems like this very thing was discussed are you sure you werent on irc

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:10 No. 19198 ID: 84b916 File 132282420961.gif - (150.27KB , 1166x739 , LFTR fuel cycle.gif )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:10 No. 19199 ID: 84b916 File 132282422942.jpg - (252.91KB , 1169x827 , LFTR in your hand.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:11 No. 19200 ID: 84b916 File 132282426139.jpg - (317.66KB , 1169x827 , LFTR LiFTeR.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:11 No. 19201 ID: 84b916 File 132282428413.jpg - (84.81KB , 719x382 , LFTR reactor design.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:11 No. 19202 ID: 84b916 File 132282430372.png - (119.01KB , 580x480 , LFTR safe.png )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:12 No. 19203 ID: 84b916 File 132282432686.jpg - (125.08KB , 981x245 , LFTR thorium price.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:12 No. 19204 ID: 84b916 File 132282434639.jpg - (671.24KB , 943x1500 , LFTR top ten attributes.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:12 No. 19205 ID: 84b916 File 132282436550.jpg - (177.98KB , 875x560 , LFTR what is thorium.jpg )

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:13 No. 19206 ID: 84b916
File 132282442236.png - (123.38KB , 1384x1263 , LFTR_TMR infographic.png )

This is all I've got for now. When I find more I'll dump more. Any questions you have that aren't answered by something in the infographs I'll happily reply to.

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:14 No. 19207 ID: 84b916 >>19197 Nope, but it wouldn't surprise me if we had another /sci/bro on here.

>>	4b1c10.jpg Lavender Sweety Belle 4b1c10 Bamump 2011/12/02(Fri)03:22 No. 19208 ID: 4b1c10 >>19207 where are you people all coming from... it's like 4chan is spitting everyone out and they're coming over here... but never mind that, SCIENCE

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)03:28 No. 19210 ID: 84b916 >>19208 Well, /tg/chan WAS originally a refugee camp for those escaping the Great Moderation, so it's possible.

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)10:23 No. 19216 ID: 2563d4

I admit that I'm a bit distracted ATM so tl;dr'd, but in Mad Nuclear Science News that a quick ^F didn't pick up in all that via a random Google result that seems to be the right thing and you can hopefully find better sources for:
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/13/hey-how-much-thorium-you-got-under-the-hood/

Nuclear sugar cubes that provide an electric car with all the power it'll need for its mechanical lifetime. FUTURE!

>>	c92b34.jpg Blue Snow Blossom c92b34 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:08 No. 19217 ID: c92b34 >>19210 Quite the opposite, actually. Tgchan was created in response to the mass of people who thought self-policing content by trolling it off the boards was a good thing, and predates the great moderation.

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:47 No. 19218 ID: 84b916
File 132286247093.jpg - (169.19KB , 900x521 , LFTR building.jpg )

Found some more images.
>>19216
Nice article, but I heard that the actual laser-powered thorium car was actually a hoax.
>>19217
Well, it was before my time, I was bound to get some facts wrong.

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:48 No. 19219 ID: 84b916 File 132286249464.jpg - (77.17KB , 735x551 , LFTR advantages.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:48 No. 19220 ID: 84b916 File 132286251905.jpg - (10.95KB , 460x269 , LFTR deaths.jpg )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:49 No. 19221 ID: 84b916 File 132286255012.png - (123.80KB , 963x715 , LFTR cylindrical comparison.png )

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)13:49 No. 19222 ID: 84b916 File 132286257663.jpg - (1.10MB , 850x3000 , LFTR energy solution.jpg )

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)17:31 No. 19229 ID: 1444d5

In theory, the LFTR is a really neat design, in practice, there are still some engineering problems to deal with, chief among them being JESUS CHRIST THAT'S SEVERAL TONS OF MOLTEN FUCKING FLUORIDE SHITSHITSHIT. Current options are fragile graphite pipes, or pipes that corrode/dissolve as soon as you turn the thing on.

Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)18:02 No. 19233 ID: 84b916

>>19229
Uh, no. That problem has been dealt with already, and a working Molten Salt Reactor ran for five years without any severe degradation before being mothballed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment#Operation
There is still some damage over time, but thankfully without being pressurized we aren't dealing with any explosions, and the stuff would solidify as soon as it escaped anyhow. It would take a week to clean up and start up, max, assuming no red tape.

The nicest thing about the flouride salt is that it's a wonderful nuclear moderator, able to absorb a shitton of radiation without becoming radioactive itself.

>>	cdb8cb.jpg Purple Lucky Cascade cdb8cb Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)22:12 No. 19250 ID: cdb8cb File 132289273004.png - (90.37KB , 399x407 , disappoint_by_le_the_creator-d34w94c.png ) >> info dump >> no form for ordering one for my backyard

>>	84b916.jpg Prince High Swirl 84b916 Bob 2011/12/02(Fri)23:05 No. 19251 ID: 84b916 >>19250 You can't yet, since the DoNE hasn't permitted it's commercial sale yet. You could build one, but it'd be tricky and expensive.

Bob 2011/12/03(Sat)11:45 No. 19261 ID: 1444d5

>>19233
Apart from the embrittlement and reduction in fracture-strain of the Hastalloy-N, you mean? I'd rather see a long-term test reactor demonstrate that the proposed addition of Niobium (as well as all the other differences between the MSRE and a full LFTR), and of the ease of decommissioning (a not inconsequential issue with the MSRE, see http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5538&page=R1).

What I'd really like to see would be development of an even higher temperature alloy, which would allow essentially uncooled operation (i.e. salt expansion would retard the reaction rate before the design temperature of the vessel is reached while totally sealed). This would allow ease of deployment of space-based reactors without needing expendable coolant reservoirs or massive cooling fin arrays.

Bob 2011/12/03(Sat)21:16 No. 19278 ID: cdb8cb

>>19195

That diagram's kind of misleading since 3% of 300kg is 9kg, compared to the 7kg of thorium. Still an advantage, more because 9kg of pure uranium would annihilate anyone who tried to hold it in his bare hands

>>	bdf35e.jpg Fair Island bdf35e Madmadmad 2011/12/04(Sun)09:04 No. 19283 ID: bdf35e >>19278 I believe the "3%" refers to the portion that is U-235 instead of U-238 (or any rarer isotope), rather than the portion that is actually uranium.

>>	bdf35e.jpg Fair Island bdf35e Madmadmad 2011/12/04(Sun)09:06 No. 19284 ID: bdf35e >>19278 Unless you're joking, in which case I feel very silly.

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