I'm a founder of the first U.S. company devoted to developing a liquid fluoride thorium reactor to produce a safer kind of nuclear energy. AMA

kirksorensen · 6 months

Helen Caldicott believes in the "linear, no-threshold" response to radiation. Even by that (erroneous) assumption her proposed strategies are utterly in error:

http://depletedcranium.com/on-lnt-and-nuclear-energy/

kirksorensen · 6 months

I agree with you--I don't want to be in the part of the industry that's stuck on 50s-60s technology.

kirksorensen · 6 months

Thank you very much!

kirksorensen · 6 months

Go Jackets!

kirksorensen · 6 months

An extremely inefficient use of thorium.

kirksorensen · 6 months

Possibly. Xenon is the single most common fission product and it's very easy to extract from a fluid-fueled reactor like LFTR. It's longest-lived radioisotope will be completely decayed in about a month after removal, so xenon aged a month will be non-radioactive.

kirksorensen · 6 months

Flibe Energy's LFTR and the Hyperion Power Module are extremely different, in just about every way. LFTR uses liquid fluoride fuel, HPM uses solid nitride fuel. HPM is cooled with lead-bismuth eutectic, LFTR uses fluoride salts in the fuel salt and coolant salt. HPM uses a steam turbine, LFTR uses a closed-cycle gas turbine. HPM has an ill-defined strategy for fuel recycling and waste disposal, LFTR's approach is simple and well-defined. HPM uses a fast neutron spectrum, LFTR uses a thermal-neutron spectrum. HPM uses uranium as the basic fuel, LFTR uses thorium as the basic fuel. Hyperion was run by a guy named Grizz, Flibe is run by two guys named Kirk.

kirksorensen · 6 months

I created the job.

kirksorensen · 6 months

Potentially yes. There are disadvantages for using these materials to start the reactor but they may be outweighed by other advantages. It all depends on how important plutonium disposition is to the government. For our first reactor we're not planning to use any plutonium in the startup. http://energyfromthorium.com/pdf/NAT_MSBRfuelcycle.pdf

kirksorensen · 6 months

http://flibe-energy.com/company/

kirksorensen · 6 months

We have not had any conversations with the NRC because our initial goal is to develop reactors to power military facilities, and they are licensed through military authority.

kirksorensen · 6 months

We will be. Keep us in mind.

kirksorensen · 6 months

kirksorensen · 6 months

Four years in the future is a much more likely time for us to be hiring widely--study hard and keep us in mind!

kirksorensen · 6 months

I left NASA of my own choice. My supervisor at the time very much wanted me to stay, since I was one of the few people at MSFC with experience in advanced in-space propulsion technology development, and they anticipated more funding in that area. I didn't think it would materialize, and indeed it did not.

kirksorensen · 6 months

http://flibe-energy.com/company/

kirksorensen · 6 months

Hastelloy-N is in production. I just talked with the representative of the manufacturer last year at Oak Ridge.

kirksorensen · 6 months

I certainly hope so. When I first learned about the technology I worked to promote its use for space exploration within NASA.

kirksorensen · 6 months

There are interested parties in the Navy. I helped a bit on a student design project at the Naval Postgraduate School five years ago:

http://www.nps.edu/academics/gseas/tsse/subpages/2006Project.html

kirksorensen · 6 months

No, not concerned because we don't cool the reactor with liquid sodium.

kirksorensen · 6 months

The more you knew about fluoride chemistry or radiochemistry, the more qualified you would be for the work. I'm a good mechanical engineer but no chemist.

kirksorensen · 6 months

http://flibe-energy.com/company/

kirksorensen · 6 months

I really don't know about the Middle East. Alvin Weinberg had grand dreams of a nuclear-powered complex (a "nuplex") that would provide electricity and desalinated water to the Middle East. We recently had some professional renderings done of his ideas:

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_irrigation.jpg

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_oblique1.jpg

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_oblique2.jpg

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_oblique3.jpg

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_neargroundlevel.jpg

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/renders/msbr72/msbr72_desert_seacooled_sunset.jpg

kirksorensen · 6 months

Graphite is used as the moderator. The thorium absorbs neutrons and decays to uranium-233 which is fissile. The fission of the U-233 gives off enough neutrons to sustain the fission reaction and to convert more thorium to U-233. The fuel salt is pumped throughout a loop that includes a core (moderated region) and a heat exchanger, where it gives up heat (enthalpy) to another salt, which is turn gives up enthalpy to the gaseous working fluid of a closed-cycle gas turbine, generating work.

kirksorensen · 6 months

We will. Please keep us in mind. Chemistry is central to our success.

kirksorensen

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