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ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

thorconpower.com

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Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#2

Post by blunte »

The linked page says little about how they do what they do. Even the Design page doesn’t explain how.

This all appears to assume some knowledge of power generation or even their approach.

Edit >> sorry! I read the hn linked page, and then I navigated to the design page. I did not also go to “home”. Perhaps the hn link could be for the home page.

Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#3

Post by extrapickles »

blunte wrote: post #2

The linked page says little about how they do what they do. Even the Design page doesn’t explain how. This all appears to assume some knowledge of power generation or even their approach. Edit >> sorry! I read the hn linked page, and then I navigated to the design page. I did not also go to “home”. Perhaps the hn link could be for the home page.

Its a molten salt thorium reactor.

[0]: https://thorconpower.com/design/

Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#4

Post by philipkglass »

blunte wrote: post #2

The linked page says little about how they do what they do. Even the Design page doesn’t explain how. This all appears to assume some knowledge of power generation or even their approach. Edit >> sorry! I read the hn linked page, and then I navigated to the design page. I did not also go to “home”. Perhaps the hn link could be for the home page.

What is ThorCon? ThorCon is a molten salt fission reactor. Unlike all current nuclear reactors, the fuel is in liquid form. It can be moved around with a pump and passively drained. This 500 MW fission power plant is encapsulated in a hull, built in a shipyard, towed to a shallow water site, ballasted to the seabed.

Link to design page: https://thorconpower.com/design/

As with any promising new idea for energy production, we'll see what the actual costs are once (if) it enters commercial production. Many concepts that work perfectly in the lab fail to succeed industrially.

Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#6

Post by icegreentea2 »

blunte wrote: post #2

The linked page says little about how they do what they do. Even the Design page doesn’t explain how. This all appears to assume some knowledge of power generation or even their approach. Edit >> sorry! I read the hn linked page, and then I navigated to the design page. I did not also go to “home”. Perhaps the hn link could be for the home page.

The actual home page says: "ThorCon is a molten salt fission reactor. Unlike all current nuclear reactors, the fuel is in liquid form. It can be moved around with a pump and passively drained. This 500 MW fission power plant is encapsulated in a hull, built in a shipyard, towed to a shallow water site, ballasted to the seabed." and "ThorCon is a straightforward scale-up of the successful United States Oak Ridge National Laboratory Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE)."

Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#8

Post by philipkglass »

riffic wrote: post #5

this reads like a too good to be true pitch, so I have to ask, what's the catch? edit: these are breeder reactors? aren't there still waste and other concerns here?

The catch is that no units have actually been built yet and the things that work well in theory may not work well in practice. Take it with the same tempered optimism as a startup pitch for a great new battery or solar cell design.

Re: ThorCon: Cheap, reliable, CO2-free electric power

#9

Post by waynecochran »

The fundamental flaw with wind power.

     Prosperous economies require reliable energy when needed, so power generation must be dispatchable on demand. Intermittent wind and solar source generators can temporarily supply low-cost electric power to the grid, but with a capacity factor of about 30%. This has created demand for redundant natural gas turbine generators to provide “back up” power when there is no wind or sun.
The wind does not blow on demand and, currently in the Pacific Northwest, they store the wind energy in batteries! The neighboring hydroelectric dams can back up water when demand is low (e.g. at night) and increase flow when demand rises (e.g. during the day).
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