When I saw this video I immediately thought of Traveller;
Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPpYQFtyO98&t=313s
Check it out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPpYQFtyO98&t=313s
TL8 Starship Power Plant
- Thread starter Blue Ghost
- Start date
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
Quite interesting, but I am not sure about building these in developing countries, as they would be totally dependent on outside engineers to operate them for a long time. I also noticed that there was no estimate of the price of one of these. You would also have to allow for replacing the capacitors on a periodic basis. Lastly, you would also have to convince people that having what amounts to a controlled hydrogen bomb in their backyard is a good idea. That is going to be a real trick.
Well, I thought of it more as a basis for futuristic starship power plant tech. I think like the thorium reactor this thing isn't prone to catastrophic failures. I think at best you're going to get a plasma leak, which is nothing to scoff at, but it's a far cry from an explosion.
Timerover51
SOC-14 5K
The thorium breeder plant is actually a good idea, but has never really gotten off of the ground. I think part of the problem is that you get U-233 which actually supplies the nuclear reaction to make the reactor operate, but once produced by the capture of a neutron by Thorium-232, it is a lot easier to separate from the fuel rods, and also has a lot smaller critical mass than U-235. The critical mass is very close to that of Plutonium.
It would make a lot of sense to take some of the Plutonium produced by the current type of low-enriched U-235 reactors to fuel a thorium breeder reactor, thereby producing more reactor fuel and getting rid of the reactor-grade plutonium.
