Prologue Before Going any further into this Extremely Important Opportunity for Mankind, I have thought about the ways to Introduce "The Thorium - LFTR", to Strangers who may or may not have heard about it. … So I have decided that The Best Explanation is the one That Kirk Sorensen gives, and where he explains how and why he Re-Discovered The LFTR and has brought it back from its Confinement in the Filing Cabinets of Historical Oblivion that were held at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)… Introduction By now you have obviously heard about Thorium and Most Probably about “The LFTR”: But, I’m assuming that’s where it ends… So if you know more than that already, please, be welcome to skip ahead to points further into this brief history. The Inventors We have this Golden Opportunity to solve most of the Problems associated with Climate Change and Future Pandemics thanks to these Scientists and The Team at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), whose Brilliant Inventiveness, Dedication, Application and Hard Work has given us this Portal into a Far better and Cleaner Future. Glenn Theodore Seaborg
Alvin Martin Weinberg  April 20, 1915 – October 18, 2006 Alvin M Weinberg was an American nuclear physicist who was the administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during and after the Manhattan Project. He came to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006. He was the first to use the term "Faustian bargain" to describe nuclear energy. A graduate of the University of Chicago, which awarded him his doctorate in mathematical biophysics in 1939, Weinberg joined the Manhattan Project's Metallurgical Laboratory in September 1941. The following year he became part of Eugene Wigner's Theoretical Group, whose task was to design the nuclear reactors that would convert uranium into plutonium. Weinberg replaced Wigner as Director of Research at ORNL in 1948, and became director of the laboratory in 1955. Under his direction it worked on the Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion program, and pioneered many innovative reactor designs, including the pressurized water reactors (PWRs) and boiling water reactors (BWRs), which have since become the dominant reactor types in commercial nuclear power plants, and Aqueous Homogeneous Reactor designs. Weinberg was appointed to the President's Science Advisory Committee in the Eisenhower administration and later in 1960, served on it in the Kennedy administration. After leaving the ORNL in 1973, he was named director of the Office of Energy Research and Development in Washington, D.C., in 1974. The following year he founded and became the first director of the Institute for Energy Analysis at Oak Ridge Associated Universities (ORAU). Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner  November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995 “E.P.” was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist and mathematician. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his contributions to the theory of the atomic nucleus and the elementary particles, particularly through the discovery and application of fundamental symmetry principles" Enrico Fermi  29 September 1901 – 28 November 1954) Was an Italian (later naturalized American) physicist and the creator of the world's first nuclear reactor, the Chicago Pile-1. He has been called the "architect of the nuclear age" . He was one of very few physicists to excel in both theoretical physics and experimental physics. Fermi held several patents related to the use of nuclear power, and was awarded the 1938 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on induced radioactivity by neutron bombardment and for the discovery of transuranium elements. He made significant contributions to the development of statistical mechanics, quantum theory, and nuclear and particle physics. Kirk Sorensen
It is a very educational Video, for those that know a little about Nuclear Physics, as also for those Like me who have had a very good Advanced Level Education in both Physics and Chemistry… I would not suggest watching it all the way through, the first time, save that for later… I would suggest watching it in sections of your own choosing and taking and making your own Notes.
It then becomes an exercise in self education, something that I most strongly believe in and enjoy… ============================================== Herewith The Best Video I could find… if you get interested you will find others that do not have quite so much detail but serve as good refresher viddeos…
Cheap,abundant & very safe nuclear power.....Thorium Just as a Reminder of a Point that Kirk made in the Video above, here is a Picture for those that have watched it, that The Radiation from The Sun and all Other Sources that affect Humans and all other creatures on the Planet is far far greater than it is from Man made Nuclear Power!... Even the Ubiquitous Coal is 100 times Greater than Nuclear!... And Causes Far More Deaths Per Annum!  Developments to Date Stage 1 ORNL - Power Gen. ( 1954 - 1973 ) In November 1954, because of The Success of The US Navy and The Building of The USS Nautilus; the World’s First Nuclear Powered Sea Vessel, Project Managed and Very Closely Supervised by Admiral Rickover: ORNL was assigned the Task of Designing a Nuclear Reactor To Power an Aircraft Capable of Staying Aloft for a Long long Time Without having to Refuel!
So Began the Search for a Compact Light Weight Nuclear Reactor!... It was The Birth of The “ARE” The Aircraft Reactor Experiment. With a Maximum Sustained Power of 2.5 MegaWatts (MW), and Generating a total of 96 MW-hours of energy. The ARE was the first Reactor to use Circulating Molten Salt as a Fuel. Kirk mentions in the Video above, that although “The – LFTR” has been developed and run and Produced Power at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, as a Development Reactor; the MSRE (Molten Salt Reactor Experiment) and ran, in “Critical” mode, for roughly 15,000 hours, from 1965 to 1969. It used U233 as Fuel, which is the Fuel that Thorium 232 becomes when it “Breeds” to become U 233, in “The Blanket”. ================================================================== V. I. N. Thus Proving that The Power Generatioin Part of The Overall Reactor Conceptual Design, Worked as Envisioned. =====================================================
In 1968, Nobel laureate and discoverer of plutonium, Glenn Seaborg, publicly announced to the Atomic Energy Commission, of which he was chairman, that the thorium-based reactor had been successfully developed and tested. It was shut down in 1971 & De-Funded; It was The Arms Race Era & Nixon’s desire for “The Fast Breeder Reactor”, which would Produce All The Weapons Grade Plutonium for The “Nukes and ICBM’s” that The USA needed to “Beat The Russians” in The Cold War. The “Fast (Neutron) Plutonium Breeder Reactor” uses U 235 and Breeds Plutonium in The “Fast Region” of the "Neutron Energy level Vs. Number of Neutrons Emitted during Fission" Graph; as shown in the Graph Fig. 001 below. and Using The Fast Breeder, the Nuclear Industry would thus Never Run Out of Fuel (unless they diverted all The Plutonium to Bombs!); until, that is, all the U238/U235 Yellow Cake has been Used up, a long Long Time into The Future! - The Thermal and Fast Regions of Neutron Energy (eV)  U233 does well enough in This region as long as Neutron Eaters are kept to a minimum... Both U235 and Plutonium, Pu239, barely operate above the Break Boint of 2 Neutrons emitted per Fission, and with the production of Xenon, (A Nucleus with a High appetite for Neutrons ... "A Big Barn"... lol...) it isnt until they get into the Fast Neutron Energy Region of The Graph that they become very Productive; as does U233... However The Thermal Region is a Safer region to Operate in as Far as Operational activities are concerned, because the moderator, the Water; in the case of The Pressurised Water or Light Water Reactor; Or The Graphite, in the case of the Thorium - LFTR: Reduces the Energy (eV) of the Neutrons emitted in the Fission Process and keeps them in the "Thermal Region" of The Graph, Fig 001, above : This also means that any Neutrons that are wasted as far as the process of Maintaining the "Criticality" of The Reactor is concerned, have less damaging effect on Materials that they happen to collide with, including Human Operators in The Vicinity; which is why all employees wear Dossimiter badges, and why Reactors have a Design Life, as the Materials of construction have some of their Atoms forced into what would otherwise be a normal Ageing or "Decay" mode of deterioration. The Molten Salt Thermal (Slow Neutron) Breeder Reactor; “The Thorium – LFTR”, does not produce Readily Available Weapons Grade Material,
In fact, even if a Working LFTR were to be successfully targeted by Terrorists and the Reactor, somehow had been breached and the Fuel Mix somehow removed from the Core, without subjecting the Terrorists to Fatal levels of Radiation, it would still require an Incredible amount of processing, with some extremely dangerous fatal levels of Gamma Radiation being given off, making working with it almost Impossible; and, at The Same time, Giving off a Signal that would be easily Tracked by Authorities looking for the Stolen Fuel! Alvin Weinberg, The Inventor of The Light Water Reactor (LWR) also known as The Pressurised Water Reactor (PWR), believed that there were inherent Safety Problems with The PWR; A Double ended Pipe Break – which would Depressurize the Reactor Vessel thus forcing the Water at a Higher Boiling Point to Immediately Flash to Steam, exposing the Core and unless flooded Immediately with Cooling Water a Meltdown would ensue!
Alvin Weinberg realized that you could use Thorium in an Entirely New kind of Reactor, one that would have Zero Risk of Meltdown. ... His Team Built a Working Reactor .... and he spent the rest of his 18-year tenure trying to make Thorium the heart of the nation’s Atomic Power Effort. He failed. Uranium reactors had already been established, and Hyman Rickover, de facto head of the US Nuclear Program, wanted the Plutonium from Uranium-Powered (U235) Nuclear Plants to make Bombs. Increasingly shunted aside, Weinberg was finally forced out in 1973. A Bit More History Who is Hyman Rickover?
The history of nuclear propulsion and Rickover's influence and involvement is substantial. Due to the importance and impact of nuclear power, the AEC commissioned the creation of two related historical records to capture important facts of both naval nuclear propulsion and the Shippingport commercial reactor. Both of these official documents necessarily contain a good deal of information on Rickover's choices, methods and technical philosophy in the development of practical nuclear power, but are not biographies. While Rickover cooperated to provide real-time access to facilities, people and records, according to the authors he did not edit; Rickover was in-fact deceased before the second document was completed. These are: (1) Nuclear Navy, 1946-1962 by AEC staff historians Richard G. Hewlett and Francis Duncan, and: (2) Rickover and the Nuclear Navy: The Discipline of Technology by Francis Duncan. The AEC makes both of these documents directly available to the public in digital form.
Ref: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Reactors Connections With ORNL In December 1945, Rickover was appointed Inspector General of the 19th Fleet on the West Coast, and was assigned to work with General Electric at Schenectady, New York; to develop a nuclear propulsion plant for destroyers. In 1946, an initiative was begun at the Manhattan Project's Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory [ORNL]) to develop a Nuclear Electric Generating Plant. Associates at that time would have been: Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner accepted a position as the Director of Research and Development at the Clinton Laboratory (now the Oak Ridge National Laboratory) in Oak Ridge, Tennessee in early 1946.
Alvin M Weinberg was an American Nuclear Physicist who was The Administrator at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) during and after the Manhattan Project. He came to Oak Ridge, Tennessee, in 1945 and remained there until his death in 2006. Stage 2 - The Thorium Breeder Blanket Shippingport Atomic Power Station Shippingport Atomic Power Station was the world's first full-scale atomic electric power plant devoted exclusively to peacetime uses. It was located near the present day Beaver Valley Nuclear Generating Station on the Ohio River in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States; about 25 miles (40 km) from Pittsburgh.
The reactor reached criticality on December 2, 1957, and aside from stoppages for three core changes, it remained in operation until October 1982. The first electrical power was produced on December 18, 1957 as Engineers Synchronized the plant with the Distribution Grid of Duquesne Light Company. The First Core The first core used at Shippingport originated from a cancelled nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and used highly enriched uranium (93% U-235) as "seed" fuel surrounded by a "blanket" of natural U-238, in a so-called seed-and-blanket design; in the first reactor about half the power came from the seed. The first Shippingport core reactor turned out to be capable of an output of 60 MWe one month after its launch. The Second Core The second core was similarly designed but more powerful, having a larger seed. The highly energetic seed required more refueling cycles than the blanket in these first two cores. The Third Core & Thorium Breeding The third and final core used at Shippingport was an experimental, light water moderated, Thermal Breeder Reactor (LWBR). It kept the same Seed-and-Blanket design, but the Seed was now uranium-233 and the Blanket was made of Thorium. Being a breeder reactor, it had the ability to Transmute relatively inexpensive Thorium to Uranium-233 as part of its fuel cycle. The Breeding Ratio attained by Shippingport's third core was 1.01 It operated at 236 MWt (Thermal), generating 60 MWe (Electric), and ultimately produced over 2.1 Billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. After five years (29,000 effective full power hours [EFPH]) the Core was removed and found to contain nearly 1.4% more fissile material than when it was installed; demonstrating that breeding had occurred. ================================================================== V.I.N. Put more Simply, The Third Core had run for 29,000 Effective Full Power Hours over a period of 5 years, producing 2.1 Billion kWh of Electricity Without Burning any of the Seed Fuel, only consuming some of the Less Expensive Blanket, and converting or "Breeding" that into "U233 Seed" ! In fact Producing More Fuel Than when it started! That Sounds Pretty Damm Good to me!... I Love Efficiency! ================================================================== Over its 25-year life, For All the Three Cores; the Shippingport power plant operated for about 80,324 hours, producing about 7.4 Billion kilowatt-hours of electricity. After destructive breakdown of the irradiated Core Fuel Rods, it was found that they contained 1.4% more Fissile Fuel than when they were first loaded. Thus proving that the Breeding of U233 from Thorium 232 was a Practical Reality. ===================================================== Stage 3 Development Where Do We Go From Here ?? R & D is required to Finalise the Development. Stage 3 Development - Materials Science This is The R & D Area That Australia & The Whole World Needs to Be Working in – RIGHT NOW!! Once Again Kirk Sorensen is showing The Lead!
Here is his Update for this Month of October 2020. ================================= SOME SAD NEWS! Recently The USA Announced That The Oil & Fossill Fuel Industry Is Being Subsidised at The Rate of Approximately US $ 6.5 T-T-T-Trillion (yes That is a T for Trillion… And The Budget for Military Expenditure on The “War Against Terror” is a Roughly Similar Ammount!! Can You Imagine what it would be like living in a World where “Climate Extinction” and Military Industrial Expenditure at Home and Abroad were being Diverted to Social and Education and Medical Needs of The Global Population? Rather than on killing Them Off? Or Imagine Living in a World Where We were Producing enough Power without Green House Gasses and In Fact Removing The Build up of Those Gasses That Would actually Mean that we were actually Working Towards allowing The Planet to Radiate Its Naturally Generated Heat From Its Core? Rather than Reflecting it Back and Bottlin g it Up in The Atmospere? Well!! We could Do it!... But sadly Wind Mills and Solar Will Not Be Enough to do That Fast Enough!... NUCLEAR, even The first Generation Designs Have Killed LESS People than Coal Oil and Gas Combined!... And The Molten Salt Reactor “The Thorium LFTR” is even Safer and Could be Built on an Assembly Line Type Approach … Dimilar to What was Achieved in The Rapid Industrialisation of The Building of War Dhips and Military Hardware For The US 2nd WW Effort!! National and Global International <assive Industrial Production of “LFTR’s” to LIFT Us Out of Chaos and Extinction… The Graph Below Shows Why Just Going For “Solar and Wind” and NOT Nuclear Will Never Enable The Achievement of The 2 Degree Celsius Limit on Global Climate Change…
The Urgency is also Portrayed in The Video following the Graph!   185 Hectares - 1534.76 m Dia circle in Spain for 20 MW Solar Power 15hrs oer Day Max Peak Power Output The Similar One in California is Now a Lot of Broken Glass! There again... We Could go for Solar PV... Hmmm! Or Maybe Offshore Wind Farms!... In The Mean Time...  And Just a Little Less Sea ICE   And Next a Sea Scape of hard to Get at and Maintain and Replace... OFFSHORE WINDMILLS I Think It's TIME for a LFTR And just because it’s necessary, sometimes to have a bit of a giggle…. Heheheheh… In 2019, the debate about nuclear energy really broke out in the Netherlands. We think it’s fair to credit comedian Arjan Lubach for kickstarting this overdue debate. On November 4, 2018, his TV show ‘Zondag met Lubach’ kicked open the doors of the policy makers of the energy transition, doors that had been closed to the option of nuclear power, with a provoking and hilarious episode of his show. The episode was remarkably well researched. It can be watched here: NOTE: (choose English subtitles in the lower right settings wheel)
Also, As my eyes are not 100% due to delays caused by The Covid-19 effect on Hospital Queues for Cataract operations; social distancing and PPE etc. etc.. I had to keep clicking on the Video to halt it wilst I caught up with the spoken words... lol... Enjoy!... It's worth the Effort!! I Think It's Definitely TIME for a LFTR & Just So We Understand WHY...  And In Australia? The Thorium MSR Site that is Really Showing Australia Up For What We are: A Nation Run By Politicians that are Hide Bound in Their Deliberate Ignorance and Corruption By The Big Oil/Coal/Gas Fossil Fuel Lobbyists, and A Nation with Engineering Institutions That have a Pusilanimous Core in Their Managements Human Nature & Organisational Structure!... Very, Very, Sad! This is Not to Say that there are Not good People that are working and Volunteering in Both The Australian Government and Engineering Institutions, because There Are Very Many: No, That is Not The Problem!.... The Problem is Lack of Moral Fibre and Integrity and The Strength to Really Lead and Inspire in The Management Positions where That Strength is required! And In The Netherlands? The Netherlands with almost no Natural Resources in Terms of Mineral Wealth and a Size that is Miniscule in Area Compared to that of Australia: The Netherlands Outshines Australia in terms of ItsTrade Ballances and National Organisation and National Investment Funding of Their Own Development and even more Importantly its ability to Recognize The Global Climate Change Crisis that is Already Upon Us! Here is a link to The Research and Development that The Netherlands has managed to accomplish from exactly the Same Starting Line That Australia and Other Nations Lined Up on in 2006! Sadly it Looks as if from this Point on, as with the Engineering Leadership in Design in The late 1960's and Early Seventies in Wind Turbines and Solar PV and Collectors That Our Australian Engineering Institutioins and Governments Would Not Support The Development of!... Once yet again We are in The Same Position!... They are Doing: NIX!... NADA!... NOTHING!... Ignorance, Stupidity, Greed and Corruption in All The Positions where Leadership in The Right Direction is Required!.... Extremely Sad! Here is The Link to Another Nations Progress in Action Taking! In Action Taking to HELP Other Nations and People All Over The World Overcome The Global Climate Change Crisis! |
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