h a l f b a k e r yThe embarrassing drunkard uncle of invention.
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A cylinder with a spiral shaped guide inside directs the
flow of Thorium salt around a central core, where it is
extracted for purification and resupply of fresh Th fuel
by florination etc; and the fresh molten salt is re-added
to the outside of the spiral.
The core is equipped with a neutron
source such as an
accelerator, or alternatively U salts are added at a single
or several points towards the core of the spiral coil.
As the salt works its way around the spiral and towards
the center it becomes more fissile, and is finally burnt
up as it reaches the center in a well balanced reaction.
The speed of flow and length of the spiral helps to
moderate the reactor and maintain the correct ratio of
Th/U at various points of the spiral.
Gas and unwanted isotope etc. buildup could be
alleviated by extraction directly into the spiral from
above.
The whole cylinder is immersed in a heat transferring
medium, eg. air.
Telegraph Link on benefits of Thorium
http://www.telegrap...y-with-thorium.html
Telegraph Link on benefits of Thorium [peterpeter, Mar 26 2011]
Thorium Video
http://www.youtube....watch?v=AHs2Ugxo7-8
A nice video about advantages of thorium over uranium [peterpeter, Mar 29 2011]
Quick Video Sword to Ploughshares
http://www.youtube....nRk&feature=related
Thorium advantages and why we originally went with uranium [peterpeter, Mar 29 2011]
[link]
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Interesting, but I need a little background on the reactions
to get this... |
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[peterpeter], one of the 'bakery's more discrete players - thirteen annoed ideas and eight ideas of his own in eight years. |
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Sometimes I feel like one of those sportscasters - "Frank, that's only the third time a player has run for 43 yards in the second quarter on a Monday night." |
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Hang on, I've run out of thumbs again... so shooting the Thorium through fast means a smaller output, yes ? |
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The Molten Thorium Salt Reactor is a well studied breeder design. The difference with this one is the development of hot spots. |
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Not that I've bothered to look it up, but this design is to minimize radioactive emission: the new salt being introduced to the outside of the ball blocks the emissions of the fissing salt further on through... or something like that. |
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The real problem here is there are all sorts of fission products being created, and some of them probably need to be continuously removed (gasses, for instance), while this idea seems to envision a very slow flow, almost one pass situation. |
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The above comments have been used to rewrite the
idea (originally a ball -- now a spiral), thank you for
your help! |
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