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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

#11

Post by nolroz »

philipkglass wrote: post #8
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.

It may be interesting to note that a similar design was built and operated continuously back in 1964 for 4 years successfully. There's some material science that needs to be ironed out for commercialization, but it's a viable technology for sure, IMHO.

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

#13

Post by nicoburns »

nolroz wrote: post #11
philipkglass wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It may be interesting to note that a similar design was built and operated continuously back in 1964 for 4 years successfully. There's some material science that needs to be ironed out for commercialization, but it's a viable technology for sure, IMHO.

> There's some material science that needs to be ironed out for commercialization

Worth noting that this is no small thing. Materials science is the limiting factor of all molten salt reactors, and has yet to be solved satisfactorily.

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

#14

Post by powcontech »

waynecochran wrote: post #9

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.…

While dams certainly store energy I wonder how many actually have flexibility to change their output by 80% of rated capacity or more on the same timescales that wind and solar output can vary.

I imagine there are a lot of environmental restrictions to keep the river flowing, avoid dewatering habitat for fish and otherwise impacting the ecosystem, and also supplying water to downstream users like farms and cities. Can’t stop the river completely!

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

#15

Post by philipkglass »

nolroz wrote: post #11
philipkglass wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It may be interesting to note that a similar design was built and operated continuously back in 1964 for 4 years successfully. There's some material science that needs to be ironed out for commercialization, but it's a viable technology for sure, IMHO.

You're referring to the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. That was a promising experiment, but the MSRE had thermal power output of 8 megawatts while the "can" in the Thorcon design is supposed to output 557 MWth -- 70 times more. The MSRE also operated for a total of 11555 hours full-power-output equivalent, about 1.3 years, whereas these reactor cans are supposed to run for 4 years at full power before replacement. There are reasons to believe that the physics are fine, but there are a lot of things other than physics that can impair an energy technology's journey from laboratory to industry. Still, I wish them luck.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment...

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

#16

Post by cinntaile »

waynecochran wrote: post #9

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.…

Did you comment in the wrong thread? This has nothing to do with wind power, ThorCon uses a molten salt fission reactor.

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

#18

Post by PaywallBuster »

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.

It's nuclear power based on Thorium instead of Uranium

The tale goes that DoD was researching both options during the Cold War? and eventually shut down the Thorium research due to the warfare potential of enriched uranium

It's becoming more popular last 10 years or so, with books being written about it and private companies picking up the development of the technology

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