Rick Perry's vision of hot tub-sized nuclear power plants isn't so far-fetched

washingtonexaminer.com ^ | John Siciliano

[JimRed]

They work safely and well in submarines, under the control of 18-24 year old techs, supervised by 25-30 year old officers. Sounds like a workable system to me.

[bigbob]

Thorium.

[aumrl]

Check out ‘HOLTEC’ in Camden NJ

[C210N]

Cool! Where can I get me one with auto-Chlorine, captains chairs, and 8 stainless steel jets?

[infool7]

Thorium is such high temperature (molten salt, think about how hot that has to be) is already at thermal run away

I am all for thorium when it’s ready but material Science has a ways to go for a commercially sustainable reactor. We have decades of experience with uranium fission that could be leveraged right now.

[null and void]

Where is that one?

[Wonder Warthog]

Mostly not true.

The “thorium cycle” is actually a uranium cycle, just a different uranium isotope. Thorium is mostly Th-232 (non radioactive). Neutrons convert Th-232 into U-233, which IS fissile, and which CAN be made into bombs. It is just much more difficult to isolate the fissile uranium from the fertile thorium due to the much higher level or radiation involved. IIRC, U-233 is highly gamma radioactive. Plutonium is not.

Thorium is being sold as an energy panacea.....it isn’t.

(Note....I am all in favor of fission power, even using current technology, but believe in being accurate about what is possible.)

[gnarledmaw]

“Nuclear electricity,” thats pretty silly. I think we all know better now but, how do we deal with all the giant ants and 50 foot women?

[Paladin2]

I assume it is still on the moon.

[null and void]

Track down every colony and "burn them, burn them all!"

[null and void]

Ah. The dust looked wind swept. It must have been close enough to the LEM take off to disturb the regolith.

[jpsb]

A small nuke reactor is a very good idea with just one down side. Terrorists, terrorists would just love to get their hands on the fuel and make some really nasty bombs. Should start using lots of small nuke reactors like the one described in this article terrorists will acquired fuel from some of them and results will not be pretty.

[PapaBear3625]

They work safely and well in submarines, under the control of 18-24 year old techs, supervised by 25-30 year old officers. Sounds like a workable system to me.

It's only workable while under military guard.

The nuclear reactors in submarines use highly enriched (96% U-235) uranium. I.e. weapons grade. This is fine as long as it's under military guard, but is not something you could leave unguarded.

[JimRed]

The nuclear reactors in submarines use highly enriched (96% U-235) uranium. I.e. weapons grade. This is fine as long as it's under military guard, but is not something you could leave unguarded.

I was talking about the concept of small reactors, not the specific type.

[nuke_road_warrior]

You mean something like this?

https://atomicinsights.com/ml1-mobile-power-system-reactor-box/

[Paladin2]

The Moon is a harsh mistress.

[ASOC]

"there is a compay in Texas pioneering small reactors. Underground power, can power a small city for up to 20 years. For peanuts. Replace and Remove every 20 years. Great technology and would remove the grid from being a national issue."

Now you have a hot tub full of seething radioactivity - lethally radioactive for the next 50 to 100 human generations.

So what does one do with the radioactive trash? Have the taxpayers foot the bill for disposal?

If the **ratepayers** had to foot the bill for the entire fuel cycle, the only nuke plants that would exists would be military - for power or for weapons.

Until the multiple issues of how to safely dispose of the nuke trash is resolved, I have to be a non-supporter.
This, if for no other reason, than to *not* leave a mess behind for my grandkids......

[null and void]

Indeed she is. You have to tow the (Hein)lein exactly to survive...

[Mr. K]

doesn’t Voyager have one ? (small nuclear power generator)

[Mr. K]

I thought I had read somewhere that Sweden or one of those other places with remote mountain villages already has something like this?