Actually the fission process in a liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr or lifter is quite different than in reactors which start with u235 or pu239. There is a great deal of useful information in this document. A molten salt reactor msr is a class of nuclear fission reactor in which the primary nuclear reactor coolant andor the fuel is a molten salt mixture. In particular conceptual designs for an advanced 1 gwe power plant with turbine reheat and. First off, i agree with robert gauthier about the economics of the situation, but yet there has to be a way in which better solutions to any problem can be brought. Lftrs use the thorium fuel cycle with a fluoridebased, molten, liquid salt for fuel. Firstly, there is a view that the lftr concept has been proven already via the moltensalt reactor experiment msre project in the 1960s.
The lftr is a breeder design and like any breeder reactor, it can be used to create fuel for nuclear weapons in addition to civilian power. It is important to ensure that the equipment specified will be capable of achieving the desired yields and selectivity. In an lftr with radius r, the velocity profile is parabolic and can be mathematically described by the wellknown hagenpoiseuille equation. The lftr advantage only the twofluid design of our lftr pronounced lifter can harness the full potential of thorium to be used for not only sustainable power, but also for lifesaving cancer treatments. Dec 18, 2012 if youve not been tracking the thorium hype, you might be interested to learn that the benefits liquid fluoride thorium reactors lftrs have over light water uranium reactors lwrs are. What is a lftr, and how can a reactor be so safe molten.
The user can design new processes, troubleshoot existing processes, evaluate alternate plant configurations, or optimize plant yield and efficiency to list a. Recent efforts focuses on a concept called the liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr, pronounced lifter. Jan 07, 2018 it is optimized for utilization of thorium with electrometallurgical pyroprocessing. It is a completely different nuclear reactor than we have been using, with molten fuel cooled by stable salts. Designs for closedcycle reactors which burn almost everything exist for both the thorium and uranium fuel cycles, and in either, we already have enough fuel to power us for tens of thousands of years. Engineers aide sinet fluid flow analysis, equipment sizing and. A liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a type of molten salt reactor msr that can use inexpensive thorium for fuel thorium becomes uranium. The moltensalt program continued for another three years at oak ridge until. The most notable of these experiments was the molten salt reactor experiment msre, that ran from 1965 1969. Lftr liquid fueled thorium reactor a moltensalt reactor using thorium a lftr is a different kind of reactor.
One advantage of using the thorium to breed fissile u233 is that some u232 is produced along with u233. Chemcad safety net plant safety and piping networks software. Recent developments in advanced reactors in china, russia. This translates to higher possible thermodynamic efficiency of the process of conversion of thermal to electrical energy up to around 50%, compared to around 30% in the case of uranium pwrs. Salt reactor design the liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr.
Weinbergs personal favorite for a power reactor was the liquid. While the lftr reactor design is one out of many possible concepts for molten salt reactors, it is further detailed here because it is an example of a true. According to estimates of japanese scientists, a single fluid lftr program. May 26, 2015 the nitrogencooled gasturbine design was fraught with technical problems and corrosion issues. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor is the key to producing life saving cancer treatments and clean, reliable, sustainable energy. Heat from the reactor is transferred to another loop of molten salt not containing nuclear materials. Jan 24, 2017 but really, this too becomes a question of reactor design, more than of thorium vs uranium. Essentially, lftr is a reactor concept, one that builds on experiments and research that took place in oak ridge national laboratory ornl between the 50s and the 80s of the 20 th century. The liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr design by flibe energy is a graphitemoderated, thermalspectrum reactor with solutions of liquid fluoride salts containing both fissile and fertile materials.
To finish detailed iter design, operate and interpret iter, and thence to design future fusion reactors, it would be desirable to have software to model the ionised plasma and its interactions which has a thirtyyearplus life span, capable not only of use but also of significant modification until c. Reactors that use the uraniumplutonium fuel cycle require fast reactors to sustain breeding, because only with fast moving neutrons. We need to stop relying on u235 as it is rather rare. Mru on lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactors tech xf.
Molten salt reactors is a comprehensive reference on the status of molten salt reactor msr research and thorium fuel utilization. Thorium in space and a new idea feet2thefire and his. The reactor pattern is a design pattern for synchronous demultiplexing and order of events as they arrive. At the dawn of the nuclear industry, the united states manhattan project developed the atomic bomb, or real two models of atomic bombs, one using uranium 235 and one using plutonium 239. At the dawn of the nuclear industry, the united states manhattan project developed the atomic bomb, or real two models of atomic. Msr interest resumed in the new millennium with continuing delays in fusion power and other nuclear power programs. Lftr is fluoride based liquid fuel, that use the thorium dissolved in salt mixture of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride. Perhaps these technical problems can be overcome, but why would anyone bother to try, knowing in advance that the msr plant will be uneconomic due to huge construction costs and operating costs, plus will explode and rain radioactive molten salt when not if the steam generator tubes leak. Many thorium supporters argue that, rather than wait for ideal molten salt or pebble bed reactors tests should be performed in approved reactors so that their. U233 is bred from thorium and is the actual fuel of a lftr. The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr offers promise for the future. Some of the points may be slightly debatable or not applicable to all msrlftr designs, but i hope it paints a clear picture as to the difficulty in msrs. Mpact working group as part of the fuel cycle technologies program.
Dec 11, 2012 the reactor at halden is not ideal for thorium as it is a heavy water reactor, built for running uranium. We abandoned msrs in the 1970s we decided to go with the liquidmetalcooled fast breeder reactor lmfbr which produced reactor fuel faster. In a lftr, the reactor vessel contains two types of liquidfluoride salts. In a typical design, the liquid is pumped between a critical core and an external heat exchanger where the heat is transferred to a nonradioactive secondary salt. Mar 01, 20 eighteenyearold taylor wilson has designed a compact nuclear reactor that could one day burn waste from old atomic weapons to power anything from homes and factories to space colonies. In a batch reactor, the reagents are added together and. Its a kind of molten salt reactor msr that enriches thorium 3x more abundant than uranium in earths crust in a liquid salt and then burns the product of that enriched material now u233 in a liquid salt. The chemical reactor design tool crdt is a set of computer programs that solves the equations describing common chemical reactor models. A slightly different type of msr can consume the uraniumplutonium waste from solidfueled reactors as fuel. The first type of design for msrs are reactors with solid fuel with molten salt coolants. Aug 17, 2018 in 2011, to advance the development requirements of our nation the chinese academy of sciences commenced the near future disruptive change atomic energy thorium molten salt reactor apparatus. Msrs offer multiple advantages over conventional nuclear power plants, although for historical reasons they have not been deployed the concept was first established in the 1950s. Ansys engineering simulation for reactor design including cfd for chemical reactor design, structural and thermal analysis and instrumentation and control software used for design and analysis of chemical reactors enable reaction engineers to answer whatif questions as they design and enhance reactors performance, energy usage, reactor yield. The reactor design methods described in these chapters attempt to bridge the gap between benchscale fuelcharacterization tests and conditions prevailing in thermochemical fuel conversion processes.
One useful function of laboratory experiments is the ability to simulate process conditions within welldefined zones of pilot or plant scale. Jan 17, 2012 with a reactor design that is inherently safer, the expensive engineered in depth safety equipment of lwrs is not needed, making lftr smaller and dramatically less expensive than lwrs. The fluorine design is expected to follow the sodium cooled design by about a decade. Temperature gas reactor htgr or gas turbine modular helium reactor gtmhr baxi, 2006, 2009 refer to the directly cbc systems, while cbc energy conversion via the very high temperature reactor vhtr, msrmolten salt reactor, or lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor refer to indirectly heated cycles. There is growing awareness that nuclear energy is needed to complement intermittent energy sources and to avoid pollution from fossil fuels. Because the graphite moderated lftr is highly scalable even without a high breeding ratio, designing the lftr to produce just one u233 atom for every fissionable atom burned.
There are a number of different msr design concepts, and a number of interesting challenges in the. In a batch reactor, the reagents are added together and allowed to react for a given amount of time. Paul houle computer modeling and simulations of reactors. If thorium lftr reactors are so awesome, why hasnt. There was funding for the are aircraft reactor experiment, which was the first molten salt reactor, which eventually led to the msre. In this case, itd probably be common practice to use a liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr pronounced lifter. In a typical design, the liquid is pumped between a critical core and an. Paul has done extensive work with the existing ornl software to calculate the characteristics of possible reactors. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr simply too dangerous thats why it was stopped. What is lftr fission, and is it the future of nuclear.
Thorium reactor liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr. Other companies have also formed since 2011 to pursue moltensalt reactors, but their designs have not incorporated the thorium fuel cycle, relying instead on enriched uranium. January 2017 gen iv briefing pdf file china begins construction of a 600 mw fast reactor, announces htgr progress. Liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is an innovative design for the thermal breeder reactor that has important potential benefits over the traditional reactor design. In a lftr, thorium and uranium233 are dissolved in carrier salts, forming a liquid fuel. Molten salt reactors incl liquid fluoride thorium reactor. Energy appears to be the most mature current concept in this category 2. Temperature gas reactor htgr or gas turbine modular helium reactor gtmhr baxi, 2006, 2009 refer to the directly cbc systems, while cbc energy conversion via the very high temperature reactor vhtr, msrmolten salt reactor, or lftr liquid fluoride thorium reactor refer to. But it is also a reactor that has already received regulatory approval. Weinberg thought that there were about one thousand different reactor designs that were possible varying fuel uranium, plutonium, thorium, high energy, or low energy, moderators, graphite, heavy water etc coolant, liquid sodium etc, and solid fuel rods or liquid fuel. While it is certainly true that such a reactor ran successfully for 4 years and that this project proved that some of the ideas behind the msr have merit, there are a couple of key things it didn. Technology assessment of a molten salt reactor design. For a brief period, this reactor was hotter than the sun. The liquidfluoride thorium reactor fluoride action network.
Chinas east reactor 6x hotter than the sun element14. A liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a type of molten salt reactor msr that can use inexpensive thorium for fuel thorium becomes uranium inside the reactor. Deemed a failure, it was an important experiment in portable reactors. In any manufacturing process where there is a chemical change.
Norway begins four year test of thorium nuclear reactor. Lftr reactor operates at temperatures higher than than classical uranium pwrs pressurized water reactors. Reactor lftr, heat source and heat sink heat exchangers, turbogenerator machinery. Ultramodular thorium molten salt shipping container reactors. Developing a molten salt reactor safeguards model osti. The msre went critical on u233 and proved lftrs viability. Lftr tech talk the perspective of molten salt reactors. Chinas east reactor has reached a temperature exceeding 180 million. Phenomena important in modeling and simulation of molten. Radiation as cancer therapy todays medical developments. Sep 03, 20 the liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr. Reactor design is a vital step in the overall design of a process. Part 8 the molten salt reactor concept daryanenergyblog.
Dec 17, 2018 what are the problems associated with the use of thorium as a nuclear power source. Flibe energy is pursuing a design called a liquidfluoride thorium reactor lftr. Staff writer feb 21, 2019 is thorium the great hope for a clean, viable and safe nuclearfuel alternative to uranium, or is it. It was invented during the 1950s and 1960s in oak ridge labs, but was quickly abandoned since the nuclear reactions were found to be not good for bombmaking.
The liquid fluoride thorium reactor lftr is a heterogeneous msr design which breeds its u233 fuel from a. Basic objectives in design of a reactor in chemical engineering physical operations such as fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer and separation processes play a very large part. Now from what ive read on wikipedia about lftr, they can produce a whole lot of power in this table it seems the most efficient system produces mwe from 700kg of fuel. Molten salt reactor use molten fluoride salts as primary coolant, at low pressure. What are the problems associated with the use of thorium. Thorium and uranium233 are dissolved in molten lithium fluoride salt in the reactor. Future is not looking good for thorium nuclear reactors. Is safe, green thorium power finally ready for prime time. Weve been mainly using the light water reactor, lwr, with solid fuel cooled by highpressure water. As fission radioactive decay occurs, heat is released and free neutrons start changing more thorium into uranium233.
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