On Feb 7, 2010, at 1:15 PM, Douglas Roberts wrote:
The term "breakthrough" is a bit of an overstatement, since Thorium
reactors have been around since the 50's. When I worked at the
Westinghouse Naval Reactors Faclility at INEL in the early 80's we
took receipt of a Thorium reactor core that had been operated for a
few years as a test by the Duquesne Power company. NRF cut it up
and tested to see if it actually did breed (it did).
The real reason for the current emergent interest in Thorium cycle
reactors is cost. Thorium is more abundant than Uranium, more
efficient as a breeder fuel, and supposedly generates less waste.
Check out what our friends at Wikipedia have to say:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor
--Doug
So should this be the solution to the proliferation of nuclear bombs?
I.e. these reactors are not only are sensible, they also do not
produce material easily used for making a bomb?
-- Owen
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