Transatomic Power
 | |
| Privately held | |
| Industry | Nuclear power |
| Headquarters | Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
Key people |
Leslie Dewan (Co-founder) Mark Massie (Co-founder) Russ Wilcox (Board Director) |
| Website | transatomicpower.com |
Transatomic Power is an American company that designs Generation IV nuclear reactors based on molten salt reactor (MSR) technology.
Company
Founded in 2011, its co-founders are MIT alumni Dr Leslie Dewan and Mark Massie,[1] and its board directors include E Ink Corporation co-founder Russ Wilcox.[2] Among its backers are the venture capital outfit Founders Fund, of which Peter Thiel is a partner.[3][4] In 2013, the U.S. Department of Energy awarded Transatomic first prize in the ARPA-E Future Energy innovation contest.[1]
Reactor concept
Transatomic are developing what they term a Waste Annihilating Molten Salt Reactor (WAMSR) designed to digest spent nuclear fuel.[5] The concept is based on the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment reactor that ran at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) from 1964 to 1969. It is open to the use of thorium or uranium as a fuel in its reactors.[6]
Transatomic released an updated technical white paper in March 2016 describing their reactor concept and future plans.[7]
It's a low pressure, high temperature molten salt reactor. Features include:
- It's planned to produce 1250 thermal megawatts, converting this to 520 MWe of electricity. This is a conservative rating of 41.6% efficiency.[8]
- Passive nuclear safety features [9]
- Fail safe freeze valve and drain tank
- Control rods and neutron reflectors - also actively actuatable [10]
- It has flexible fueling using either Uranium or spent nuclear fuel.[11] This feature is said to be aided by:
- The design is said to make both slow, "thermal" neutrons and somewhat faster neutrons so the reactor able to accept a wider range of fuels.[12]
- The design is said to remove neutron poisons continuously as well.[13] This was accomplished in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment by sparging the salt with helium to remove gaseous Xenon 135.
- Lithium fluoride(LiF) fuel salt [14] This is a departure from the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment, which used an admixture of beryllium fluoride in its salt to get beryllium's corrosion control and neutron-doubling effects. TA claims that LiF can dissolve more fuel per unit of salt, compensating for LiF's lack of neutron-doubling and higher melting point.[15] An additional issue is that to minimize tritium production, the salt's ratio of lithium 7 should be enhanced. Currently, Lithium 7 is produced only in small amounts, for calibrating mass spectrographs. The reactor will require quantities on the order of several metric tonnes.
- Moderated by zirconium hydride(ZrH),[16] possibly also using lithium hydride(LiH) and yttrium hydride(YH).[17] ZrH is corroded by molten LiF salt, but an admixture of YH in the moderator may form an anticorrosion barrier of yttrium lithium fluoride.[18]
- The reactor's vat, piping, heat-exchangers and pumps are to be made of "Modified Hastelloy-N," a corrosion-resistant nickel-chromium alloy developed from experience with the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment.[19][20] There is no published operating experience using this alloy with LiF in a reactor core, and the salt's lack of a redox control component (such as beryllium) to manage corrosion increases the risk. Regulators may delay commercial deployment of TA's reactor by up to two full refueling cycles to validate this choice. With the TA reactor's long fuel-use cycle, this could take a decade, and pose commercial risks.
See also
References
- 1 2 Cook, Gareth. "A new way to do nuclear". The New Yorker. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ↑ Martin, Richard; Navigant Research. "A Pair of MIT Scientists Try To Transform Nuclear Power". Forbes. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ↑ Gray, Kevin. "Peter Thiel Goes Nuclear". Popular Science. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ↑ Fritcke, Emily. "Can You Be an Environmentalist Without Embracing Nuclear Energy?". Slate. Retrieved 28 February 2016.
- ↑ WIle, Rob. "MIT Kids Think They've Solved How To Get Rid Of Nuclear Waste". Business Insider. Axel Springer. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ↑ Halper, Mark. "Meet Transatomic Power: Developing an alternative reactor, with Silicon Valley flair". Weinberg Next Nuclear. The Alvin Weinberg Foundation. Retrieved 20 February 2016.
- ↑ "Transatomic Technical White Paper v1.0.3" (PDF). Transatomic Power. March 2016. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.3, 2016, p 3,35.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.3, 2016, p. 32.
- ↑ transatomic_patent, claims
- ↑ TAP v1.0.3, 2016, section 2.6.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.1, 2016, section 2.6, figure 8.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.1, 2016, section 2.6.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.3, 2016, p. 3.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.1, 2016, section 2.3.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.3, 2016, p. 18.
- ↑ Massie, Mark; Dewan, Leslie C. "US 20130083878 A1, April 4, 2013, NUCLEAR REACTORS AND RELATED METHODS AND APPARATUS". U.S. Patent Office. U.S. Government. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
- ↑ "Transatomic's Patent". Energy From Thorium Discussion Forum. Energy from Thorium Blog. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
- ↑ TAP v1.0.1, 2016, section 2.6.
- ↑ Keiser, J.R. (1977), Status of Tellurium-Hastelloy N Studies in Molten Fluoride Salts (PDF), Oak Ridge National Laboratories, ORNL/TM-6002
External links
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