Molten-Salt Reactors to use Pebble Fuel or Liquid Fuel? TR2016c 2h51m44s26f
Channel: Thorium Remix
Date: 2017-03-23

http://ThoriumRemix.com/ Why are American national labs pursuing pebble-bed Molten-Salt Reactors instead of liquid-fuel Molten Salt Reactors?

Baronesse Bryony Worthington (UK House of Lords) poses this question to Dr. Cecil Parks when touring Oak Ridge National Lab. Grant Buster also fields this question posed by Thorium and liquid-fuel advocates touring Berkeley.

Dr. Per Peterson explains that earlier Berkeley pebble-bed designs featuring thorium were dropped in favor of enriched uranium pebbles as solid-fuel Thorium, even in a dynamic pebble-bed, achieved little better burn-up than when used in solid fuel rods.

So while many advances in nuclear power can be made using pebble fuel and molten salt to transfer heat, complete combustion of Thorium is not possible. For that, liquid fuel is required.

Chemist Dr. Stephen Boyd then argues in favor of liquid fuel over pebble fuel. Whether nuclear fuel and fission products are trapped together in fuel rods, pellets or in pebbles, it makes chemical separation and reprocessing impractical.

Why not keep the fuel in liquid state instead? There's more chemistry to deal with, but dealing with that chemistry then directly addresses the least appealing aspects of today's nuclear power.