User:David MacQuigg/Sandbox/Nuclear Power

Nuclear Power

Reading List

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2019/05/31/thorcon-advanced-nuclear-reactor-more-than-worth-its-weight-in-salt https://www.acs.org/content/acs/en/education/resources/highschool/chemmatters/past-issues/2019-2020/feb-2020/open-for-discussion

https://skepticalscience.com/NuclearEnergy.html

https://skepticalscience.com/renewable-energy-baseload-power-advanced.html

Abbott 2011, 2012 -best anti-nuclear, but way outdated, not familiar with thorium MSRs.

https://energyfromthorium.com/

Principles, History, Blog/Forum 
Resources: PDF Archive, IEER Rebuttal, Myths vs Facts

Topic Outline

Issues

   _safety
   _waste
   _diversion

This seems to be the issue with the most remaining uncertainty, with experts on both sides. The anti-nuclear side says there is no way to avoid production of bomb-grade U-233 if there are thousands of thorium reactors in hundreds of countries. Other experts say that the nuclear fuel can be "denatured" with levels of U-232 higher than the low levels needed for bombs. Most agree that any nuclear power will have some potential for diversion, but argue that the requirement for a new fuel cycle should be only that diversion is more difficult than the readily available method of uranium enrichment with centrifuges, already in use by North Korea and Iran.

   http://nuclearweaponarchive.org/Nwfaq/Nfaq6.html#nfaq6.2

6.2.1.3 U-233 If the above precautions are followed weapons-grade U-233 can be produced with U-232 levels of around 5 parts per million (0.0005%). Above 50 ppm (0.005%) of U-232 is considered low grade.

In a commercial fuel cycle the build-up of U-232 is not really a disadvantage, and may even be desirable since it reduces the proliferation potential of the uranium. In a fuel economy where the fuel is reprocessed and recycled the U-232 level could build up to 1000 - 2000 ppm (0.1 - 0.2%). In a system that is specifically engineered to accumulate U-232, levels of 0.5-1.0% can be reached.

   _cost

References

Abbott 2011) Is Nuclear Power Globally Scalable? By DEREK ABBOTT, Proceedings of the IEEE

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=6021978 

Abbott 2012) Limits to growth: Can nuclear power supply the world’s needs? Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0096340212459124 

Skeptical Science 2019) Is Nuclear Energy the Answer? Posted on 13 June 2019 by scaddenp

https://skepticalscience.com/NuclearEnergy.html