1 / 67

Aim High! Thorium energy cheaper than from coal. Walk away safe. robert.hargraves@gmail

Aim High! Thorium energy cheaper than from coal. Walk away safe. robert.hargraves@gmail.com. Global environmental problems mount. Prosperity stabilizes population. GDP per capita. 82 nations with populations over 10 million. Children per woman.

tuari
Download Presentation

Aim High! Thorium energy cheaper than from coal. Walk away safe. robert.hargraves@gmail

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Aim High!Thorium energy cheaper than from coal.Walk away safe.robert.hargraves@gmail.com

  2. Global environmental problems mount.

  3. Prosperity stabilizes population. GDPpercapita 82 nations with populations over 10 million. Children per woman https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html

  4. Prosperity stabilizes population. GDPpercapita 82 nations with populations over 10 million. Stable replacement rate Prosperity Children per woman

  5. Prosperity depends on energy. GDPpercapita Nations with populations over 10 million. Prosperity Annual kWh per capita https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2042rank.html

  6. Energy and coal use is growing rapidly in developing nations. Non-OECD energy use World coal use http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html

  7. We need energy cheaper than from coal. Copenhagen failed. Nations resist carbon taxes.

  8. Technology policy lies at the core of the climate change challenge. "If we try to restrain emissions without a fundamentally new set of technologies, we will end up stifling economic growth, including the development prospects for billions of people. "We will need much more than a price on carbon. “…technologies developed in the rich world will need to be adopted rapidly in poorer countries. Prof. Jeffrey Sachs Economist, Columbia University Director of The Earth Institute http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?id=technological-keys-to-climate-protection-extended

  9. Aim High! Set aggressive goals. Develop a new energy sourcethat produces electricity cheaper than from coal, synthesizes vehicle fuel, is inexhaustible, reduceswaste, and is affordable to developing nations.

  10. A supernova made the elements of the periodic table. Thorium Uranium

  11. A supernova made the elements of the periodic table. Thorium Uranium

  12. U-233, U-235, and Pu-239 are three possible fission reactor fuels. Natural fission

  13. Uranium-238 neutron absorption makes fissionable plutonium-239. fission beta decay neutron absorption

  14. Thorium-232 neutron absorption makes fissionable uranium-233. fission beta decay neutron absorption

  15. A Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) makes thorium into uranium. Waste Waste separator New U-233 fuel n n Uranium separator Heat exchanger FissileU-233 core FertileTh-232 blanket Salt New Th-232 Turbine and generator

  16. Start up LFTR by priming it with a fissile fuel. Waste Waste separator New U-233 fuel n n Uranium separator Heat exchanger FissileU-233 core FertileTh-232 blanket New Th-232 • The US government has 500 kg of U-233. • Prime with U-235, or Pu from spent LWR fuel.

  17. LFTR fuel is dissolved in liquid. Molten fluoride salt mix: LiF and BeF2 Excellent heat transfer Continuous chemical processing Atmospheric pressure Room temp solid Key technology -- liquid fuel form!

  18. Thorium fuel is plentiful, compact, and inexpensive. 440,000 tons in US (USGS) $300,000 per ton 500 tons, entire US, 1 year 1 ton, 1 city, 1 year  dense, silvery, ½ m,1 ton thorium sphere http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/thorium/690798.pdf

  19. One Lemhi Pass claim has enough thorium for 1,000 years. Thorium Energy, Inc. claims 1,800,000 tons of thorium ore. 500 tons of thorium can supply all US annual electricity. The US has 3,200 tons stored in the Nevada desert. http://www.energyfromthorium.com/ppt/ThoriumBriefSep2008.ppt http://www.thoriumenergy.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=17&Itemid=33

  20. LFTR produces < 1% of the long-lived radiotoxic waste of today’s reactors.

  21. Aim High! Mine < 1% of the ore; bury < 1% of the waste. 35 t of enriched uranium(1.15 t U-235) U-235 is burned; some Pu-239 is formed and burned. 35 t of spent fuel stored containing: 33.4 t U-2380.3 t U-2351.0 t fission products0.3 t Pu 250 t uranium containing 1.75 t U-235 215 t of depleted U-238(0.6 t U-235) 1 t fission products In 10 yrs, 83% FP stable. 17% FP stored ~300 years. 1 t thorium Fluoride reactor converts Th-232 to U-233 and burns it. .0001 t Pu http://wwf

  22. LFTR is walk-away safe. Stable reactivity. Fuel already melted. Atmospheric pressure. Melting freeze plug dumps salt to tank. Salt from rupture or leak will solidify. Freeze plug Passive cooling dump tank.

  23. Radiation, fission products, and heat damage solid fuel. Zirconium cladding must contain fuel and fission products for centuries.

  24. Solid fuel reactors use only 3% of the potential energy. 3% fission products 1% plutonium 0.50% Pu-239 0.25% Pu-240 0.15% Pu-241 Enriched uranium fuel 96.5% U-238 3.5% U-235 Pressurized water reactor 96% uranium 0.83% U-235 0.40% U-236 94.77% U-238 trace % minor actinides Np, Am, Cm, …

  25. Actinides fission or absorb neutrons to form new actinides, which ....

  26. The aqueous homogeneous reactor at Oak Ridge generated 140 kW in 1953. Richard Engel adds 300 g of uranium in 500 ml of heavy water to generate electric power for two months.

  27. Weinberg and Oak Ridge developed the first molten salt nuclear reactor in 1954. 860 C Red hot! 100 hours 2.5 MW

  28. The Fireball reactor made heat to power jet engines. 1.4 m diameter

  29. Rickover's drive, Nautilus submarine, and Shippingport power plant 100 US PWRs.

  30. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment ran from1965 to 1969. Salt flowed through channels in this graphite core.

  31. The Molten Salt Reactor Experiment succeeded. • Hastelloy • Xe off-gas • Graphite • Pumps • Fluorination • Dump tanks • U-233 • 17,655 hours http://www.ornl.gov/~webworks/cppr/y2006/pres/124659.pdf

  32. Why can LFTR energy be cheaper than from coal?

  33. The median of five cost estimates for molten salt reactors is < $2/watt.

  34. LFTR needs no costly 160-atmosphere pressure vessel and containment dome.

  35. The Westinghouse AP-1000 is massively larger than LFTR. 1.4 m 1.4 m AP-1000 Samen, China

  36. High thermal energy efficiencies keep LFTR compact at low cost. High thermal capacity heat exchange fluid Carbon composite high temperature heat exchanger

  37. Compact closed cycle Brayton turbine raises power conversion efficiency. Halving rejected heat enables air cooling.

  38. LFTR can undersell coal. Coal ?

  39. LFTR can undersell coal. Coal Thorium

  40. Aim High!Develop a small modular reactor. 100 megawatt, $200 million -- cheaper than coal Affordable to developing nations Single modules -- suited for small cities -- short transmission lines Multi-module power stations -- incremental growth and cost -- replace plants at existing sites Small LFTR modules can be transported by trucks.

  41. Boeing makes one $200 million aircraft per day.

  42. The learning curve reduces costs. 10% learning ratio

  43. One-a-day production of 100 MW LFTRs can be a $70 billion industry. Develop Scale up Produce Export 2011 2016 2021 Commercialize

  44. Aim High!Check global warming. Install one 100 MW LFTR each day, worldwide, to replace all coal power.  1400 GWY 10 billion tons CO2 Annual emissions from world coal power plants 2020 2058 http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/table63.xls

  45. Aim High!Synthesize fuel from H2. Ammonia Dissociate water with sulfur-iodine or copper-chlorine cycle. CO2 + 3 H2CH3OH + H2O Methanol for gasoline Dimethyl ether for diesel http://wwwtest.iri.tudelft.nl/~klooster/reports/hydro_slides_2003.pdf

  46. Aim High! Cut US oil imports. • Dissociate H2 and synthesize fuel(@ 50% x 50% efficiency). • 200 MWth LFTR and plant makes 250,000 bbl/year. • (@ one a day) 4.9 billion bbl 3.9 billion bbl Annual US oil imports for gasoline 2032 2021 http://www.eia.doe.gov/pub/international/iealf/table63.xls

  47. Aim High! Stabilize world population. GDPpercapita 82 nations with populations over 10 million. Stable replacement rate Children per woman

  48. Aim High! $ 1 B $ 5 B $ 70 B per year industry Develop Scale up Produce Export 2011 2016 2021 Cut 10 billion tons/year CO2 emissions to zero by 2058. Avoid carbon taxes. Improve world prosperity, and check overpopulation. Reduce radiotoxic waste; consume world fissile stocks. Use inexhaustible thorium fuel, available in all nations. Walk-away safe.

  49. Backup slides for questions.

More Related