[HN Gopher] China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor ___________________________________________________________________ China Says It's Closing in on Thorium Nuclear Reactor Author : Hoasi Score : 51 points Date : 2021-08-04 19:57 UTC (3 hours ago) (HTM) web link (spectrum.ieee.org) (TXT) w3m dump (spectrum.ieee.org) | j_walter wrote: | Nuclear is far from the best source of electricity, but it is far | less damaging to the environment than coal or NG if handled and | designed properly. If countries can work together to put them in | places that protect from major earthquakes or other natural | disasters then I think we can get some decent movement on reduce | GHG emissions from power plants. | timbit42 wrote: | How long does it take to plan and build a nuclear plant? At the | rate solar, wind and energy storage are improving, will it be | worth the wait? Solar has dropped in price by more than 80% in | the past 10 years. | seiferteric wrote: | Compare the EROEI on solar (~10) vs nuclear (~100), and LFTR | (~1200 maybe...) in particular, there is no comparison. In | the future we will need far more electrical energy, it's not | enough to just replace what we currently have. Also if we | want to actively remove carbon from the atmosphere, we will | need a tremendous amount of power. | Tade0 wrote: | Problem is, we might not be able to build them fast enough. | | China is currently the leader in deployment of nuclear | power, but even there wind power overtook it in terms of | GWh delivered in 2013 and the difference was been widening | ever since. | | Similarly within a decade solar went from delivering 1% of | the energy nuclear did, to 70%. At this rate it will close | the gap before 2025. | DennisP wrote: | Present-day reactors, a long time. Small modular reactors | built in factories or shipyards could be pretty quick. Some | of those designs are MSRs like China's reactor. | DennisP wrote: | One nice thing about a molten salt reactor like China is | building is that the dangerous fission products are chemically | bound in the salt. If some external event breaks the reactor | wide open, the salt cools and you just have radioactive rocks | there on the site, instead of a radioactive cloud over a large | region. | guscost wrote: | This could also be a feint to get DoD money into the technology. | tpmx wrote: | That would be awesome, but unfortunately the CCP has proven to us | that we can't trust their word. Over and over again. | jdavis703 wrote: | They say they're 9 years away. That's a long enough date that | I'd be skeptical of any government that was giving a prediction | for nearly a decade out. | tablespoon wrote: | > That would be awesome, but unfortunately the CCP has proven | to us that we can't trust their word. Over and over again. | | IMHO, claims like this from them should be believed 100%, | because to do otherwise invites complacency. | smhost wrote: | this also isn't the type of thing that governments tend to | lie about. it's not like a scenario where a contractor | overpromises and underdelivers and government media has to do | damage control. they're also not announcing some new leap in | scientific understanding. it's old science. | wolverine876 wrote: | > this also isn't the type of thing that governments tend | to lie about | | This is the sort of thing governments lie about, IME - big, | sensational achievements that enhance their status. | duairc wrote: | > CCP has proven to us that we can't trust their word. Over and | over again. | | Are you able to substantiate that claim? | antman wrote: | My thinking is that for major projects they mostly deliver | against our intuition. What are the counter examples which are | over and over again? ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2021-08-04 23:01 UTC)