Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:
The road to cleaner, meltdown-proof nuclear power has taken a big step forward. Researchers at NRG, a Dutch nuclear materials firm, have begun the first tests of nuclear fission using thorium salts since experiments ended at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the early 1970s.
Thorium has several advantages over uranium, the fuel that powers most nuclear reactors in service today. First, it's much harder to weaponize. Second, as we pointed out last year in a long read on thorium-salt reactors, designs that call for using it in a liquid form are, essentially, self-regulating and fail-safe.
The team at NRG is testing several reactor designs [javascript required] on a small scale at first. The first experiment is on a setup called a molten-salt fast reactor, which burns thorium salt and in theory should also be able to consume spent nuclear fuel from typical uranium fission reactions.
The tests come amid renewed global interest in thorium. While updated models of uranium-fueled power plants are struggling mightily to get off the ground in the U.S., several startup companies are exploring molten-salt reactors. China, meanwhile, is charging ahead with big plans for its nuclear industry, including a heavy bet on thorium-based reactors. The country plans to have the first such power plants hooked up to the grid inside 15 years. If they pull it off, it might just help usher in a safer future for nuclear power.
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(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 25 2017, @01:30PM (5 children)
"molten salt power generator"
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(Score: 3, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday August 25 2017, @01:42PM (3 children)
In Japan, they are Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Power Generators (Sūpā shiawasena kyōki no tanoshī jikan no hatsudenki)
Makes you want one of your own doesn't it!? :)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday August 25 2017, @02:02PM
omae wa mou shindeiru
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(Score: 3, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 25 2017, @03:01PM (1 child)
> In Japan, they are Super Happy Crazy Fun Time Power Generators (Sūpā shiawasena kyōki no tanoshī jikan no hatsudenki)
I'm quite sure that's just a euphemism for masturbation.
(Really, 自家発電 (jika hatsuden, home power generation) *is* an actual euphemism for masturbation :D)
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday August 25 2017, @04:21PM
LOL, glad I'm not the only one who picked up on that one here!
But on a more serious note: these things would be perfect with the modular reactor design Toshiba (IIRC?) was working on. Load with enough fuel for 50 years, make passive-safe, then bury them and forget them.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2, Funny) by Rich26189 on Friday August 25 2017, @05:54PM
At first glance I read that as Morton Salt Reactor