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China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

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Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#31

Post by letitbeirie »

DennisP wrote: post #5
j_walter wrote: post #2

Nuclear is far from the best source of electricity, but it is far less damaging to the environment than coal or NG if handled and designed properly. If countries can work together to put them in places that protect from major earthquakes or other natural disasters then I think we can get some decent movement on reduce GHG emissions from power plants.

One nice thing about a molten salt reactor like China is building is that the dangerous fission products are chemically bound in the salt. If some external event breaks the reactor wide open, the salt cools and you just have radioactive rocks there on the site, instead of a radioactive cloud over a large region.

If its design allows it to somehow avoid a BLEVE [0] from whatever fluid it uses to move energy from the reactor to the generator being suddenly liberated.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boiling_liquid_expanding_vapor...

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#32

Post by not2b »

Tade0 wrote: post #14
seiferteric wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare the EROEI on solar (~10) vs nuclear (~100), and LFTR (~1200 maybe...) in particular, there is no comparison. In the future we will need far more electrical energy, it's not enough to just replace what we currently have. Also if we want to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere, we will need a tremendous amount of power.

Problem is, we might not be able to build them fast enough. China is currently the leader in deployment of nuclear power, but even there wind power overtook it in terms of GWh delivered in 2013 and the difference was been widening ever since. Similarly within a decade solar went from delivering 1% of the energy nuclear did, to 70%. At this rate it will close the gap before 2025.

It's seems it would suffice to have enough nuclear power to keep the grid going when the sun is down and the wind isn't blowing. You could then have a zero-carbon system. You'd need designs that you can turn on and off easily. Maybe a bit of battery storage to handle transitions smoothly.

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#34

Post by arcticbull »

wolverine876 wrote: post #25
smhost wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe in movies. governments mostly tend to lie about things they did badly, not about long-term accomplishments that can be fairly easily measured against their previous record, currently level of expertise, etc.

> maybe in movies No, I said "IME". Don't try to dismiss other people.

I think some citations and evidence are generally preferable to broad sweeping statements prefixed with "in my experience" - I'm not saying you're wrong but you've given me no reason to believe.

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#35

Post by nicoffeine »

tpmx wrote: post #17
duairc wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> CCP has proven to us that we can't trust their word. Over and over again. Are you able to substantiate that claim?

> Are you able to substantiate that claim? https://foreignpolicy.com/2021/03/18/china-covid-19-killed-h... It is widely known that when the new coronavirus emerged in December 2019, the Chinese government downplayed the pandemic threat for several critical weeks. Less commonly known is those same authorities deliberately sacrificed health workers to maintain their lies. The Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) calculated…

Our government wasn’t any better.

January 20th, 2020: “We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China, and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

February 11th, 2020: “In our country, we only have, basically, 12 cases and most of those people are recovering and some cases fully recovered. So it’s actually less.”

February 26th, 2020: “When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that’s a pretty good job we’ve done.”

March 10th, 2020: “This was unexpected. … And it hit the world. And we’re prepared, and we’re doing a great job with it. And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away.”

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#36

Post by vbezhenar »

j_walter wrote: post #2

Nuclear is far from the best source of electricity, but it is far less damaging to the environment than coal or NG if handled and designed properly. If countries can work together to put them in places that protect from major earthquakes or other natural disasters then I think we can get some decent movement on reduce GHG emissions from power plants.

Fusion electricity is what will provide humanity with energy for centuries to come. It'll be available very soon and until then it does not really matter whether we will use nuclear or coal. We just need a final push for 50-100 years and energy issue will be solved once and forever. All the environment issues will be dealt with, when we will have a free energy and better technologies. Spending too much effort on cleaning environment now is not wise.

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#37

Post by smhost »

maerF0x0 wrote: post #27
smhost wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In review, Foreign Policy covers news related to foreign affairs with minimal bias. Headlines are generally free from loaded words, though at times moderate such as this: Bernie Sanders Still Doesn’t Pass the Commander-in-Chief Test (anti-progressive) and this Trump Doesn’t Want to Play Peacemaker (anti-Trump). Both articles use proper sourcing. In general, Foreign Policy leans slightly right in their news coverage…

Are you implying a specific group?

yeah, the old clintonites, the sinemas, maybe you can toss mitt romney in there. they're the most powerful political bloc currently, if you're new to politics

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#38

Post by seiferteric »

Tade0 wrote: post #14
seiferteric wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Compare the EROEI on solar (~10) vs nuclear (~100), and LFTR (~1200 maybe...) in particular, there is no comparison. In the future we will need far more electrical energy, it's not enough to just replace what we currently have. Also if we want to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere, we will need a tremendous amount of power.

Problem is, we might not be able to build them fast enough. China is currently the leader in deployment of nuclear power, but even there wind power overtook it in terms of GWh delivered in 2013 and the difference was been widening ever since. Similarly within a decade solar went from delivering 1% of the energy nuclear did, to 70%. At this rate it will close the gap before 2025.

It's a fair point, but we just don't know yet, which it is important for research to continue. From an intuitive sense though, I think our economic growth and our standard of living is tied to energy costs, and being tied to a low EROEI system means to me that it will limit our potential since a larger % of the economy must be devoted to building/replacing them rather than doing other things.

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#39

Post by baby »

vbezhenar wrote: post #36
j_walter wrote: post #2

Nuclear is far from the best source of electricity, but it is far less damaging to the environment than coal or NG if handled and designed properly. If countries can work together to put them in places that protect from major earthquakes or other natural disasters then I think we can get some decent movement on reduce GHG emissions from power plants.

Fusion electricity is what will provide humanity with energy for centuries to come. It'll be available very soon and until then it does not really matter whether we will use nuclear or coal. We just need a final push for 50-100 years and energy issue will be solved once and forever. All the environment issues will be dealt with, when we will have a free energy and better technologies. Spending too much effort on clea…

> It'll be available very soon

Lol

Re: China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor

#40

Post by SantalBlush »

wolverine876 wrote: post #25
smhost wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

maybe in movies. governments mostly tend to lie about things they did badly, not about long-term accomplishments that can be fairly easily measured against their previous record, currently level of expertise, etc.

> maybe in movies No, I said "IME". Don't try to dismiss other people.

For the time being, I am going to dismiss you until you provide some actual evidence to support your claim.
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