If you'd like to support my nuclear power videos please visit www.patreon.com/thorium where I do accept financial support. You'll probably enjoy my Patreon feed, if you take any interest in Advanced Nuclear. (Molten-Salt Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, thermal-spectrum breeders, fast-spectrum breeders.) If you find my work useful I ask for $1/year. Yes, $1/year. (It helps keep out the riff-raff.) Again, head to: www.patreon.com/thorium
Thanks Gordon. High performance graphite structures are vital to a whole range of industrial and engineering applications, including batteries, it is not just about nuclear as important as that is. For these guys, press on, with haste.
he keeps mentioning salts getting in to the salt at high pressure yet every type of molten salt reactor i have seen being looked at operates at low pressure. why ?
Great question. "high" and "low" pressure are relative, and should really be "higher" or "lower" pressure thana referene. I grew up around boats, so I understand outboard engines. A high pressure yamaha fuel pump on an outboard motor operates at many hundreds of psi, while a low pressure fuel pump may operate slightly above atmospheric pressure to push the fuel throughout the engine. In a pressurized water reactor (PWR) the water commonly operates around 300 C and over 2000 psi. In these molten salt reactors, at these high temps where the salt has low viscosity like water, you don't need a very "high" pressure pump to create a high flow (that we want).
I imagine that in non-normal emergency scenarios, the reactor may be designed to be put into a more pressurized state than standard operation to flush the coolant and/or fuel salt out of the reactor to stop the nuclear chain reaction process, which may have drastic effects on the structural integrity of those that are moderated with porous material like graphite. Seems like measuring such high pressures (even though you would only license up to a fraction of that pressure for operation), is mainly for basic structural science, safety, and licensing.
@@owluitar but even with this scenarios the salt and graphite would be in contact for such a short time there is no point. every design i have seen works on the drain tank or the dump in more salt to dilute to stop the reaction as most salts react less as they get hotter and expand
@@brianwild4640 you still need a theory and data of how different types of graphite, and there are many, respond to intrusions into their porosities. Otherwise how do you choose which graphite materials are okay and which are not? Seems this data is needed to characterize performance of graphite and high temperatures in molten salt. Information that's not known now.
A fast spectrum reactor will burn used nuclear fuel rods extracting 25 x more power than the original PWR or AGR reactor. It can also burn life exploited nuclear bomb cores we have lots of them sitting about in storage. It can also burn depleted uranium if which we have huge amounts left over by the enrichment process. We simply have no need to mind any new nuke fuel for decades.
@@gordonmcdowell I was poking fun at his lack of understanding. Anyone who knew a bit about reactors would know about moderators. Whereas a modulator is something you might use in a radio transmitter. I was going to ask him if the nuclear modulator was AM or FM!
If you'd like to support my nuclear power videos please visit www.patreon.com/thorium where I do accept financial support. You'll probably enjoy my Patreon feed, if you take any interest in Advanced Nuclear. (Molten-Salt Reactors, Small Modular Reactors, thermal-spectrum breeders, fast-spectrum breeders.) If you find my work useful I ask for $1/year. Yes, $1/year. (It helps keep out the riff-raff.) Again, head to: www.patreon.com/thorium
Thanks Gordon. High performance graphite structures are vital to a whole range of industrial and engineering applications, including batteries, it is not just about nuclear as important as that is. For these guys, press on, with haste.
197 views w in the first hour. Who would have thunk? Let’s hope that modular MSRs get traction.
Pay this guy more!
he keeps mentioning salts getting in to the salt at high pressure yet every type of molten salt reactor i have seen being looked at operates at low pressure. why ?
Great question. "high" and "low" pressure are relative, and should really be "higher" or "lower" pressure thana referene. I grew up around boats, so I understand outboard engines. A high pressure yamaha fuel pump on an outboard motor operates at many hundreds of psi, while a low pressure fuel pump may operate slightly above atmospheric pressure to push the fuel throughout the engine.
In a pressurized water reactor (PWR) the water commonly operates around 300 C and over 2000 psi. In these molten salt reactors, at these high temps where the salt has low viscosity like water, you don't need a very "high" pressure pump to create a high flow (that we want).
I imagine that in non-normal emergency scenarios, the reactor may be designed to be put into a more pressurized state than standard operation to flush the coolant and/or fuel salt out of the reactor to stop the nuclear chain reaction process, which may have drastic effects on the structural integrity of those that are moderated with porous material like graphite. Seems like measuring such high pressures (even though you would only license up to a fraction of that pressure for operation), is mainly for basic structural science, safety, and licensing.
@@owluitar but even with this scenarios the salt and graphite would be in contact for such a short time there is no point. every design i have seen works on the drain tank or the dump in more salt to dilute to stop the reaction as most salts react less as they get hotter and expand
@@owluitar have you looked how molten salts work
@@brianwild4640 you still need a theory and data of how different types of graphite, and there are many, respond to intrusions into their porosities. Otherwise how do you choose which graphite materials are okay and which are not? Seems this data is needed to characterize performance of graphite and high temperatures in molten salt. Information that's not known now.
thanks gordon
A fast spectrum reactor will burn used nuclear fuel rods extracting 25 x more power than the original PWR or AGR reactor. It can also burn life exploited nuclear bomb cores we have lots of them sitting about in storage. It can also burn depleted uranium if which we have huge amounts left over by the enrichment process. We simply have no need to mind any new nuke fuel for decades.
I think if you need a graphite modulator you have th wrong designe.
Nigel, do you remember the comment you left on Dec 5, 2018? How about you just let the grownups do their work.
What's a modulator doing in a nuclear reactor?
@@henryD9363 Moderator. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neutron_moderator
@@gordonmcdowell I was poking fun at his lack of understanding. Anyone who knew a bit about reactors would know about moderators. Whereas a modulator is something you might use in a radio transmitter. I was going to ask him if the nuclear modulator was AM or FM!
@@henryD9363 Ah. Thanks for clarifying you know wuzzap.