In reply to JonesBeene's message of Tue, 30 Apr 2019 06:42:54 -0700: Hi Jones, [snip] >Robin, > >On first glance, one obvious thermodynamic problem is steam in that every >fission fragment capable of knocking off a neutron is also able to boil off >several hundred million molecules of heavy water in the process of >thermalizing.
As you can see, from the second message I posted in this thread, this type of reactor was in fact among the first reactors ever built. They do work. Furthermore, I think steam production would probably be a negative feedback mechanism which helps control the reactor. I.e. steam bubbles are less dense, which reduces the amount of moderation available between nuclei, resulting in faster neutrons with a lower fission cross-section. That means that steam formation reduces the power generated and results in a self stabilizing reactor. In fact they (google AHR), were known to be very easy to control, see the second message I posted. See also http://large.stanford.edu/courses/2012/ph241/tilghman2/ There were corrosion problems when uranyl sulphate was used, but these were largely overcome when they switched to uranyl nitrate in a stainless-steal vessel. I suspect that corrosion could be further reduced by lining the metal parts with teflon. However what I was really wondering is whether or not fission fragments can contribute significantly to the neutron efficiency by splitting D nuclei, in a heavy water base? I'm guessing they do, because the AHR is known for a high neutron flux, which would appear to make it a reasonable choice for a thorium based breeder. > > Consequently maintaining a liquid state with uniformly dissolved salt > becomes impossible even under high pressure.. A molten salt would be feasible > but not a dissolved salt in the liquid state. > > > > >? Please see http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/Thorium_breeder_in_solution.html > >Regards, Robin van Spaandonk > > Regards, Robin van Spaandonk local asymmetry = temporary success
