Micro molten salt reactor can fit on a truck, power 1k homes. When it's built
As the US Department of Energy continues to look for ways to improve molten salt nuclear reactors , a team from Brigham Young University in Utah has designed one it says can fit safely in the bed of a 40-foot truck., which will be built by Professor Matthew Memmott and his team, has a chamber that measures just four by seven feet , has no risk of a meltdown, and can produce enough energy to power 1,000 homes, the university said.
Unlike traditional light-water reactors, which typically store uranium fuel in solid rods that have to be kept cool with liquid water to avoid a meltdown, MSRs insteadfissile material into a molten salt that also acts as the reactor's primary coolant. Treating the fuel and primary coolant as one, and not relying on keeping water coolant flowing and below boiling point, is seen as one safety advantage, among others, for MSRs.
According to Prof Memmott, nuclear power, and molten salt in particular, is an ideal solution to the world's current energy conundrum because it is safe and stable, the core reaction doesn't produce carbon emissions, and it generates valuable elements accessible for reprocessing after the reaction is complete.
Additionally, Prof Memmott said his team were able to pull oxygen and hydrogen from the salts as well."Through this process, we can make the salt fully clean again and reuse it. We can recycle the salt indefinitely," he said.Molten salt reactors were developed in the 1950s and 1960s, and were billed as an alternative to light-water reactors due to their touted smaller size and improved safety. The designs at the time ultimately proved unusable for their original purposes.
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