Graphite Free Core?

The Generation IV international forum describes itself as

a cooperative international endeavor organized to carry out the research and development (R&D) needed to establish the feasibility and performance capabilities of the next generation nuclear energy systems.

The Generation IV International Forum has thirteen Members which are signatories of its founding document, the GIF Charter. Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the Republic of South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States signed the GIF Charter in July 2001. Subsequently, it was signed by Switzerland in 2002, Euratom in 2003, and the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation, both in 2006.

The goals adopted by GIF provided the basis for identifying and selecting six nuclear energy systems for further development. The six selected systems employ a variety of reactor, energy conversion and fuel cycle technologies. Their designs feature thermal and fast neutron spectra, closed and open fuel cycles and a wide range of reactor sizes from very small to very large. Depending on their respective degrees of technical maturity, the Generation IV systems are expected to become available for commercial introduction in the period between 2015 and 2030 or beyond.

Molten Salt Nuclear technology is included in the Generation IV project and recently quite litterally the picture of the MSR in the web site has changed.What is going on here?

A recent brief EfT duscussion focuses on what is behind the crossing out of the graphite free core, but not why this is not a good idea. Lars notes

the French approach definitely avoids graphite and its waste flow. Leaves you with the challenge for startup though. Apparently the concerns about proliferation are much lower in France.

Concerns about the proliferation risks posed by LFTRs another thorium cycle MSRs are absurd, as another recent EfT discussion has demonstrated. In this discussion Lars notes,

LFTR is one of a very few technologies that have a serious chance to provide power to 9 billion people without serious damage to the environment. Along the way it can also chew up the existing transuranic waste. There are some big engineering challenges to solve. But so far as I can tell they are all solvable. The really big unknowns are: 1) can we get the cost below coal and 2) can we survive the politics.

The LFTR is not going to supply energy to nine billion people without a graphite core. Indeed a Graphite free core will require ten times as much fissionable material in its start up charge, and will leak neutrons like a sive. Leaking neutrons mean no thorium breeding. As Cyril R points out in the graphite free core discussion,

Graphite free core, what nonsense. Lots of graphite reflector in the French designs, and lots of graphite in the core and pebbles of the AHTR. Even Jaro's HW-MSR uses graphite tubes. Only no-graphite design we've seen is David's tube in tube, and that's fringe culture for the Gen IV VIPs.

It would appear that the conversation about MSR technology on EfT goes on at a much higher level of information than the conversation at the Generation IV forum. Thorium is not going to provide energy for 9 billion people without graphite cores.

Documentary Criticizes Japan’s Export of Nuclear Technology

A documentary film that exposes the effect of Japan nuclear technology on a small village in Vietnam will be shown at this year’s Fukuoka Asian Film Festival. Shinobiyoru Genpatsu (“Encroaching Nuclear Power Plant”) is a scathing indictment against the government’s pursuit of exporting nuclear technology to developing countries like Vietnam.

Documentary writer Shinsuke Nakai visited a coastal village called Thai An in central Vietnam where a nuclear plant will be built soon, with Japan lending its technology and experience. The residents of the village, whose population is around 2,000, told the filmmaker that they were not properly informed about the dangers of nuclear power and its serious consequences, as evidenced by the 2011 nuclear meltdown in Fukushima.
The nuclear plant to be built is part of an agreement between the two nations, signed in 2010, wherein Japanese contractors will build two nuclear reactors in Vietnam. The village head was invited by the Japanese to view a nuclear power plant and he was showed that the reactors are “sealed” and are quite safe. The villagers will only be relocating 1 kilometer from where the plant will be built. Construction is scheduled to begin sometime next year.

Nakai also filmed the residents of Fukushima who were forced to evacuate and until now are displaced due to the expected fallout from the meltdown. The film attempts to show the difference and similarities between the two communities. It has also been screened in western Japan, Tokyo and Nagoya for free.

Sure, A Nuclear Plant, But Does It Float?

This one does:

In three years, Russia will have the world’s first floating nuclear power plant, capable of providing energy and heat to hard-to-get areas as well as drinking water to arid regions.
The unique vessel should be operational by 2016, the general director of Russia’s biggest shipbuilders, the Baltic Plant, Aleksandr Voznesensky told reporters at the 6th International Naval Show in St. Petersburg.
The Akademik Lomonosov is to become the spearhead of a series of floating nuclear power plants, which Russia plans to put into mass-production.

This is a pretty large portfolio of activities – electricity, heat, desalination – it’s like the Ginsu knife of nuclear facilities. Although shaped like a boat, it has no means of locomotion. instead, it is towed where ever it needs to be and anchored in place. I suspect what it ends up doing depends on who buys (leases?) it.

Each ship will have two modified KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors together providing up to 70 MW of electricity or 300 MW of heat, which is enough for a city with a population of 200,000 people.

The Russians admit that there’s nothing particularly new about the technology, just its application.

The floating power-generating unit, aimed at providing energy to large industrial enterprises, port cities and offshore gas and oil-extracting platforms, was designed on the basis of nuclear reactors which are equipped on the icebreakers ships. The technology has proved itself for over 50 years of successful operation in extreme Arctic conditions.  

The reaction to the Akademik Lomonosov has been mixed. ZDNet’s David Gewirtz compares it to the scheming of a Bond villain:

I'm also betting that the producers of Bond flicks could build an entire movie around this premise: "See, okay, this evil villain Leonid Arkady has become the head of Spectre and wants to make his own power."
"He doesn't want to be dependent on other countries for power ever again, see, so he's gonna launch this floating nuke plant and then destroy the world and start civilization over, all living off the power of his floating nuke plant."

Wasn’t this Ras-al-Ghul’s plan for Gotham City in Batman Begins? At least Gewirtz suggests that it is the plant that keeps life plausible after the earth is otherwise denuded of people.
The Week’s Keith Wagstaff keeps the issues in better balance and comes out in favor:

Still, the barges themselves don't seem to be any more dangerous than Russia's nuclear-powered ice-breaker ships, which use the same KLT-40 naval propulsion reactors. The reactor-equipped barges would hold 69 people, and would have to be towed to their locations. They would also be able to power 200,000 homes, and could be modified to desalinate 240,000 cubic meters of water per day.

I could have done without this line:

Of course, no nuclear reactor is completely safe.

No car or anything else is completely safe, either. Nuclear reactors come closer than a lot of human activities, but I’d be willing to just retire the line. Consider it a compromise.
Frankly, the Russians have been beavering away at this project since 2007, until running short of money. It maybe a project worth reviving, but it’s worth hesitating before deciding it’s value. If the Russians can find some customers, fine. Right now, it’s an odd variation on small reactors, if also admittedly an interesting one.
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Mikhail Lomonosov was an 18th century – well, everything. He was a scientist in several fields, a poet, an historian, and several etceteras. His pile of accomplishments is quite high. Russiapedia has a thorough accounting, though you have to accept lines describing him as “the first Russian scientist-naturalist of universal importance.” National pride and all.