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

Aim High! Thorium energy cheaper than from coal. Walk away safe. robert.hargraves@gmail.com. Global warming, overpopulation, and resources competition are increasing. Prosperity stabilizes population. GDP per capita. 82 nations with populations over 10 million. Children per woman.

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

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

  2. Global warming, overpopulation, and resources competition are increasing.

  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 Children per woman https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/docs/rankorderguide.html

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

  6. 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

  7. Energy use is growing rapidly in developing nations. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html

  8. Coal burning is increasing sharply in developing nations. http://www.eia.doe.gov/oiaf/ieo/world.html

  9. Can energy be cheaper than from coal?

  10. Can energy be cheaper than from coal? Copenhagen failed. Nations resist carbon taxes.

  11. 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

  12. Aim High! • Develop a new energy technology to • produce electricity cheaper than from coal, • be inexhaustible, • synthesize vehicle fuel, • reducewaste, • be affordable to developing nations, and • be walk-away safe.

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

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

  15. The Fireball reactor would make heat to power jet engines. 1.4 m diameter

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

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

  18. Weinberg had envisioned LFTR ever since the 1943 Wigner design. "humankind's whole future depended upon this"

  19. 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!

  20. Lemhi Pass has enough thorium to power the US for millennia. 500 tons per year can supply all US electricity. Thorium Energy, Inc. claims 1,800,000 tons on 1500 acres. The US stores 3,200 tons in the Nevada desert.

  21. LFTR produces less long-lived radiotoxic actinide waste.

  22. Energy can be cheaper than from coal.

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

  24. The Westinghouse AP-1000 is massively larger than LFTR. 1.4 m 1.4 m AP-1000 Samen, China Jan 2010

  25. LFTR relies on simple, intrinsic safety systems. Stable reactivity. Fuel already melted. Atmospheric pressure. Salt from rupture or leak will solidify. Melting freeze plug dumps salt to tank. Freeze plug

  26. High temperature enables efficient, less expensive power turbines. … and waterless cooling. MIT-ANP-TR-100

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

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

  29. One-a-day production of 100 MW LFTRs can be a $70 billion industry. Develop Scale up Produce Export 2010 2015 2020 Commercialize

  30. Thorium can undersell coal. Coal Thorium

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

  32. Synthesize fuel from H2. Ammonia Dissociate water at high temperature via 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

  33. End energy poverty, increase prosperity, and stabilize population. GDPpercapita Stable replacement rate Prosperity Children per woman

  34. But, US advanced nuclear fission R&D has dropped – to zero for breeders. 2012 DOE Nuclear Energy budget items $50 millionNGNP high temperature gas reactor with TRISO fuel. $40 millionAdvanced fuel cycles, but no liquid fuel, no closed fuel cycle breeders. $22 millionAdvanced reactor concepts: molten salt cooling, Brayton, supercritical CO2 turbines. $16 billion ($2011)Cumulative LMFBR investment. IAEA, via Inter. Panel on Fissile Materials Feb 2010

  35. China is starting LFTR development. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jan 2011 Jiang Mianheng Australia / Czech Republic: $300 million France: Grenoble R&D Japan: Fuji molten salt reactor SA-LFTR: Mideast / Africa ORLY Group: Caribbean Flibe Energy: US DoD Thorenco LLC: US MIT / UCB $7 million 3 yr study http://whb.news365.com.cn/yw/201101/t20110126_2944856.htm

  36. LFTR is worth it. $ 1 B $ 5 B $ 70 B per year industry Develop Scale up Produce Export 2010 2015 2020 Cut 10 billion tons/year CO2 emissions to zero by 2058. Avoid carbon taxes. Improve developing world prosperity, and check growth. Avoid weapons proliferation. Reduce radiotoxic waste; consume world fissile stocks. Use inexhaustible thorium fuel, available in all nations. Walk away safe.

  37. Uranium from a commercial LFTR will not be used for weapons. Breeds only as muchU-233 as it consumes. Removing any will stop the LFTR. U-232 contamination will be ~0.13%. A 5 kg sphere of it radiates 4,200 mrem/hr at 1 meter. After 72 hours of exposure a weapons worker will likely die. New U-233 fuel n n Uranium separator FissileU-233 core FertileTh-232 blanket New Th-232 India, Pakistan, and North Korea demonstrated far less technically challenging and costly paths.

  38. 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

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