Will the future finally arrive?
- Thread starter Insidious Von
- Start date
Today is yesterday's future.
There is no guarantee of tomorrow, only now, the present is all we have.
Mankind thinks he has it all under control but he doesn't.
There is no guarantee of tomorrow, only now, the present is all we have.
Mankind thinks he has it all under control but he doesn't.
A star in a jar, that is what fusion is. I hear we are close to unity now, output energy = input energy, the new reactors are supposed to give us net positive energy. This is every bit as noble of an endeavor as curing disease, going to the moon, climbing the tallest mountain, and negotiating peace.
True it doesn't matter what the cost to develop nuclear fusion is. It's still far more economical than the cost of keeping nuclear fisson waste cooled.
Climbing the tallest mountain is a noble endeavor? lol
But yes, finding a sustainable energy source is hugely important. Even if you believe the Earth has plenty of reserves of fossil fuels left, the reality is that eventually it'll run out, be it tomorrow or hundreds of years from now.
shakenbake
Senior Turgid Member
Nice video. However, he only seems to describe American reactors that need uranium enrichment to work. UF6 is 'fun' to make, as it is by Cameco at Port Hope. Fluorine cells are fun to be near, especially when minute amounts of fluorine gas leaks out and 'explodes' into bangs.
CANDU reactors work on natural non-enriched uranium oxide, OU2, that is produced by dissolution of U3O8 (yellow cake) in nitric acid and converted to UO3. UO3 is dissolved into nitric acid and subjected to denitration of uranyl nitrate and subsequent reduction to UO2. The ceramic UO2 can be used directly in the CANDO reactor. However, enriched fuel is needed in other classes of reactors. Some of that UO2 is dissolved into HF to produce UF4 and then burned in a fluorine flame reactor to produce UF6, a nasty process. That UF6 undergoes centrifugation to enrich the lighter U235 in the UF6 and subsequently converted to UO2 by chemical means.
Some work many, many years ago, as I recall learning about when I was a grad student, pointed to the great possibility of running a CANDU reactor on the thorium cycle. I do not recall any details, as it was almost 40 years that I was learning about reactor technology. However, the thorium cycle would be very,very immense,despite some things that have to still b eironed out and economics considered.
My money would be, everything else equal, to use CANDU reactors, and with a thorium cycle. It avoids that nasty fluorine, and uses a more stable and safe reactor configuration, with minimal meltdown issues!
From about 1977, or thereabouts;
http://library.sinap.ac.cn/db/yuanjian201001/全文/40103730.pdf
More recently;
http://www.nuclearfaq.ca/brat_fuel.htm
shakenbake
Senior Turgid Member
One sad fact was,many years ago, that only abut 2 % of the fissile U235 was used before the fuel bundles became 'spent fuel'. Fuel re-processing should be developed!
