Falls well in line with the work at ITER, they just had a CODAC moment 😀
https://www.iter.org/newsline/-/3397
Water cooling loop, pushing 4200kg's of water per second.
https://www.iter.org/newsline/-/3720
https://www.iter.org/newsline/-/3397
Water cooling loop, pushing 4200kg's of water per second.
https://www.iter.org/newsline/-/3720
China is hoping to commercialise thorium reactors.
When China switches on its experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei, it will be the first molten-salt reactor operating since 1969, when US researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory shut theirs down.
Thorium is a weakly radioactive metal that is a waste product of the rare-earth mining industry in China, and is therefore an attractive alternative to imported uranium.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02459-w
When China switches on its experimental thorium reactor in Wuwei, it will be the first molten-salt reactor operating since 1969, when US researchers at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory shut theirs down.
Thorium is a weakly radioactive metal that is a waste product of the rare-earth mining industry in China, and is therefore an attractive alternative to imported uranium.
https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-02459-w
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A quick search reveals that the "thorium cycle" commences with non-fissionable thorium-232 being bombarded by neutrons from existing fissile material such as uranium-235.
Under neutron bombardment, the thorium-232 transmutes into highly radioactive protactinium-233, which then decays into fissionable uranium-233, an isotope of uranium that is not found in nature. It is this fissionable uranium-233 that constitutes the nuclear fuel.
It's a key factor of the LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) design that uranium-233 is produced faster than it is consumed by fission. Hence a thorium reactor qualifies as a 'breeder reactor', since it 'breeds' its own fuel.
I saw this 3-part Netflix series "Inside Bill's Brain" last year (among many other documentaries), in the third part Bill Gates talks about his plan to build nuclear power plants in China, because that was the only country that would consider newer nuclear plant designs. I think it was thorium, but not sure. But just as the plan was about to be implemented, the USA ("for whatever reason" - avoiding an off-topic subject) started a trade embargo with China, nixing the deal. It looks like China finally went ahead with it on their own, or something was worked out.
ETA: Bill writes a little about it here, his plant was NOT thorium: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/How-I-test-bold-ideas
Here's the part 3 trailer:
ETA: Bill writes a little about it here, his plant was NOT thorium: https://www.gatesnotes.com/About-Bill-Gates/How-I-test-bold-ideas
Here's the part 3 trailer:
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I wish there was something positive going on in my brain department! 🥴
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I was annoyed when I read the news that a derelict SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket (massing 4 metric tons and travelling at 2.6 km/s) will crash into the Moon on March 4 and make a crater about 19 m in diameter!
Then, in the course of reading the article, I discovered this would be no new occurrence!
I read that the Apollo Saturn 13 IVB upper stage made a 30 m wide crater when deliberately crashed on the Moon in order that vibrations detected by seismometers installed on the surface could be used to investigate the lunar interior.
https://www.space.com/spacex-rocket-crashing-into-moon-crater
Then, in the course of reading the article, I discovered this would be no new occurrence!
I read that the Apollo Saturn 13 IVB upper stage made a 30 m wide crater when deliberately crashed on the Moon in order that vibrations detected by seismometers installed on the surface could be used to investigate the lunar interior.
https://www.space.com/spacex-rocket-crashing-into-moon-crater
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No they are from one and the same object - the telescope mirror segments haven't been aligned yet.
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