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A lot is currently happening in research and development when it's about nuclear energy.
The demand for zero-emission, base-load capable power generation without political dependencies is in high demand worldwide. Hence also the urge to research new, safer nuclear power technologies.

439 nuclear reactors are currently operational worldwide, 108 more are planned or under construction and will supply the grid by 2030. While the western countries are concerned about nuclear power, Nations like China, Russia and India are leading the list for new nuclear reactors.
In this context Thorium reactors are mentioned particularly often.
China's first liquid-salt thorium reactor is coming online soon, and India even wants to shift its ENTIRE nuclear economy on Thorium. This Technology could also be able to solve the energy crisis with clean and safe Nuclear energy

We took a closer look at the nuclear Thorium technology. It promises more energy with less fissile material, less nuclear waste and greater safety.
Can the reactors really deliver what they promise?
How advanced is the state of the art and are the predictions about the miracle reactor correct?

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#energycrisis #nuclear #thorium #nuclearenergy #technews

[davehalliday]

The corrosion is directly proportional to "Salt Purity" the more pure the salt the less corrosion. The reactor they ran at full power for 6, 000 hours at Oak Ridge lab had minimum corrosion after they inspected it because they had an almost pure salt that they could manage back in the 60's, today salt purity is no longer a problem.

[stanleytolle]

Molten salt reactor research was shut down due to political reasons not problems with corrosion. The first reactor was successful in meeting all the requirements in demonstrating the feasibility of the molten salt concept and demonstrate advantages in safety and utility of the concept. The problem with corrosion was mostly figured out and a remote servicing process was developed to replace parts as needed. A reactor to tests these solutions and to further develop the reactor concept was planned when politically all funding was cut. There were no technical reasons that the reactor research was halted.
For more information:

[javabean]

Negative temperature coefficient, where increasing coolant temperature results in lower power production, has been in use in uranium based reactors as well. The US Navy specifically chose this method initially, and has stuck with it, because of the inherent safety. This isn't just a product of thorium reactors.

[suprbird]

If the country with the largest deposits has only 13%, that shows how widespread this stuff is.

[ignorancebeater]

At the end the vid gets it totally wrong. Thorium reactors, at least in an LFTR configuration, REDUCES nuclear waste, and does not produce *more* waste (than current nuclear plants). So the statement done in the vid is very misleading. It's true it still produces *some* nuclear waste, but ten times less than current 2gen reactors AND the waste that remains has only to be kept safe for 300-400 years, instead of 25000 years, as it is with current nuclear waste. Perfectly doable: we already have buildings or underground storages that last that long.

Also... since it can burn up more of the nuclear material, it could de facto reduce all current "overall nuclear waste" as a whole. Because it could use our already existing stockpiles of high radioactive waste, and burn it up - reducing it tenfold, and produce electricity while being at it. Even the Greens should jump on this, because it solves their eternal complaint about nuclear waste - yet most don't. Because "nuclear".

[jameslawrence]

India and China - can't think of two countries more in need of carbon free energy!!

[richvandervecken]

I am glad you pointed out that the Molten Salt Thorium reactor was developed at Oak Ridge National laboratories in the 1950's. You did not however point out that Oak Ridge had a 10 Megawatt proof a concept reactor that operated into the 1970's and was shut down by the Nuclear Regulatory Agency not because of safety concerns but because the President at the time wanted to spend that money to build more conventional Nuclear power plants in California. Ironically I don't think that any of the nuclear reactors that were paid for with that money ever went operational as public protests shut them all down. The Nuclear Regulatory Agency and the Department of energy have refused to let any company build prototype plants to test new materials in them. They have had the technology in powdered metals to solve the corrosion issue since the late 1980's but our government has prevented the research and development of Molten Salt Thorium Reactors for overtly political reasons. Powdered metals allow the creation of a whole new range of alloys because dissimilar melting points are not a problem with powdered metals. Powdered metals are blended into a homogeneous mixture while dry then form pressed into the final part.

[Nanook]

There is ZERO reason to take the U-232 from the liquid salt + thorium fuel, or any of the other actinides for that matter. The actinides can either be fissioned or bred into fissionable isotopes. The only things that need to be removed are the fission products which are all lighter but neutron rich isotopes that turn neutrons into protons in the process of beta decay (emission of an electron and generally a couple of neutrinos), these elements are highly radioactive but short lived (they will return to the level or radioactivity as the natural ores from which they were mined within 300 years which is basically ten cycles of decay for the longest lived isotopes. Contrast this to a conventional pressurized light water reactor that will make a lot of plutonium and other actinides that will remain hot for around a million years.

[PhilipWong]

Of the six proposed fourth-generation nuclear reactor types, the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) is the only type with high fuel efficiency, no danger of explosion, and does not generate substantial amounts of plutonium. The fissile uranium-233 produced by the MSR is difficult to use for weapons because of the presence of highly radioactive uranium-232. While other Small Modular Reactors (SMRs) can serve as a short-term solution, MSRs are considered a more promising mid-term solution due to their potential to address these issues more comprehensively. Hopefully, we will have fusion by the time we run out of uranium and thorium. The global thorium reserve of 6 million tons will be exhausted in 800 years at an annual consumption of 7500 tons.

The differences between Light Water Reactors (LWR) and Thorium Molten Salt Reactors (TMSR) are significant in fuel utilization and waste production. LWRs use approximately 0.5-1% of uranium fuel, leading to the generation of long-lived radioactive waste due to inefficient energy conversion and the use of enriched uranium. In contrast, TMSRs can achieve fuel efficiency of up to 98%. This is achieved by converting fertile thorium-232 into fissile uranium-233, substantially reducing waste production and more manageable radioactive waste. Uranium Molten Salt Reactors (UMSR) will produce more plutonium but are just as effective as TMSRs.

800 kg of natural thorium in a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) can generate 1 gigawatt (GW) of electricity for one year. In comparison, generating the same amount of energy in a Light Water Reactor (LWR) would require mining 200 tons of uranium. In an MSR, the storage requirement for 83 percent of the spent fuel is 10 years, and 300 years for the remaining 17 percent, whereas in an LWR, 28 tons of spent fuel need reprocessing and storage for 200, 000 years. MSRs can utilize the spent fuel from LWRs. A coal power station will need to burn 3.5 million tons of coal and emit 10 million tons of carbon dioxide to produce the same amount of energy for one year. That amount of coal contains 3 to 14 tons of uranium, 3 to 14 tons of thorium, and an average of 84 tons of arsenic.

MSRs can adjust power output to match electricity demand, thanks to the inherent and automatic load-following capability provided by the fluid nature of the molten salt coolant. A key safety feature of MSR is that it automatically adjusts to prevent overheating. This is achieved through a "negative thermal reactivity coefficient, " which means that as the temperature rises, the reactor's reactivity decreases, preventing a runaway chain reaction. Additionally, the MSR has a "negative void reactivity coefficient, " ensuring that the reactivity decreases if there is a loss of coolant or boiling, preventing potential overheating. These safety measures help keep the reactor stable and safe under various conditions.

Looking ahead to 2040, China plans to deploy Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) for desalination of seawater, district heating or cooling, hydrogen production, powering of ships equipped with Thermoacoustic Stirling Generators, and power plants with Supercritical Carbon Dioxide Turbines within its borders and globally. In the Earth's crust, thorium is nearly four times more abundant than uranium. Every atom of natural thorium can be harnessed, unlike natural uranium, where only 1 out of every 139 atoms can be used. China produces thorium as a byproduct of its rare earth processing.

Similar to the trends observed with solar and wind technologies, MSR costs are anticipated to decrease with the scaling up of production and the development of robust supply chains.

India has taken the wrong path and persists with fast breeder solid-fuel thorium reactors to make plutonium for weapons.

[stultuses]

Australia has more thorium than India according to data sources (300k vs 280k)

[TheLennemoy]

Indias FBTR at kalpakam went critical in 1987. India is one of the leaders in Thorium reactors it actually has a 500 mw reactor almost ready for operation, china is just starting with an experimental reactor now.

[dranzacspartan]

The problem with molten salt is that is used to trigger off a LFTR (Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor), is that salt is extremely corrosive. They need to be material used for construction of LFTR that performs satisfactory in a molten salt environment.

[Mrmagil]

We have more thorium than we can ever use. It’s literally that common.

[jillsteeves]

If politicians and Big Oil stayed out of it, the world would be building these Thorium reactors ASAP. Safe, clean and they last.

[neuralwarp]

That was 50 years ago. We have alloys now that can survive radiation and molten salts. Incidentally, salt corrosion only happens in the presence of water. There's no water in a reactor running at 850°C.

[Mrmagil]

“How can we generate energy with a low radioactive material?”

That’s irrelevant. There are plenty of radioactive isotopes, some are highly radioactive, and many that are much less so. The real question is, is it fissile (or can it be made so) and is it in sufficient quantities to do anything with.

The only viable isotopes are U233, U235 and Pu239. Only U235 is naturally occurring, but it’s quite possible to make U233 and Pu239.

[birther]

If corrosion is such a factor how did the MSR in Livermore run for five years with out a glitch?

[frankkolmann]

btw The biggest problem with a Thorium fission reactor is the gamma rays released.
Eventually the entire reactor becomes highly radioactive and any shields also become highly radioactive.
Gamma rays are also a problem for any proposed Fusion reactor .

In fact the fusion reactor at the core of the Sun produces gamma rays and it is only the vast bulky mass of the Sun that attenuates the gamma rays to a form we can tolerate that allows life to exist.

[ujjwalutsav]

Wrong map of India is used in Video.. correct it

[MarkMcelligottPeaches]

I agree with Stanley on reasons for shutting down research. But, it was not shut down around the world and Copenhagen Atomics has designed a process that treats the fluoride salt to make in non-corrosive to the reactor structures. This breakthrough is also the reason that Copenhagen Atomics has created a auto-industry manufacturing process for building Thorium Fluoride Molten Salt reactors that will allow for the generation of cheap small footprint SMRs for energy grids around the world. The burning of hydrocarbons for transportation will be reduced directing the hydrocarbon resource towards more valuable product production like material and petrochemical.