From Bloomberg:
How New Nuclear Could Lift Renewables at a Third of Hinkley Cost
A former chief scientist for one of the world’s biggest consumer-goods companies says he can make nuclear power cheaper and safer and wants $30 million so that he can prove it.
After working 25 years at Unilever Plc, Ian Scott came out of retirement in 2013 to found Moltex Energy LLP. Three years later, the biochemist says he’s come up with an atomic-reactor design that produces more power for less money than standard pressured-water unit like the ones planned at Hinkley Point in Somerset, England.
“The Stable Salt Reactor is a U.K.-developed technology that can produce electricity at a third of the Hinkley-C strike price,” Scott said in an interview at Bloomberg’s office in London. “It can store energy at grid scale -- catalyzing the further rollout of renewables -- and can be powered by the country’s existing nuclear waste.”
A bit more:
Scott figures $30 million will buy his design the time it needs to win first-stage regulatory approval. The Moltex reactor builds off molten-salt technologies developed at the U.S. Oak Ridge National Laboratory that were abandoned because they couldn’t be used militarily.
Thorium does not go Ka-Boom so the military was not interested. The industry did not want to support two different fuel refining processes so they went with Uranium.
The website is here: Moltex Energy. I do not like that they are using zirconium metal in the fuel rods - this adds risk to the design. The traditional LFTR reactor is walk-away safe. This design is a lot safer than the current pressurized units but not as good as it could get.
Two good videos:
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