[EvaH (OP)]

Tony wants to know:

How accurate are claims that Thorium liquid salt reactors are as safe and clean(ish) as some scientists claim?

I am reading that:
1) Unlike uranium/plutonium reactors, you can't weaponise Thorium or its by-products
2) Plentiful supply in most countries in the form of monazite (3 x plentiful as Uranium)
3) Can safely burn most of the current stockpile of nuclear waste in Thorium reactors
4) Thorium reactors need not be pressurised and will stop creating fissionable material if there is a malfunction or accident, therefore being much safer.

Seems too good to be true?

What do you think?

[acsinuk]

To provide power generation at nights when the wind is not blowing  Nuclear may be needed to boost the hydro which is the only easily available power source if wind or tidal power plants are overloading.
So we should not spend any money de-contaminating old nuclear plants as they will be needed again once we decide which option to go for.  Put the army into old nuclear station like Sellafield to secure them and spend the money instead on R&D to build up a lead in our own nuclear industry.

[yor_on]

you should read this.  https://energycentral.com/c/ec/thorium-vs-molten-salt-reactor .I have a weak remembrance of one getting build, or at least planned to be built, in China and there was a time plan finishing 2020 for a research reactor. The idea of molten salt reactors is very nice but the temperatures generated in its operation create problems if I remember right. https://www.technologyreview.com/2015/10/16/165755/china-details-next-gen-nuclear-reactor-program/
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This seems to be the latest news about it. https://asiatimes.com/2020/02/molten-salt-and-traveling-wave-nuclear-reactors/

And ok, not only temperature but also "  The FHR concept Dolan has been testing envisions billiard-ball-sized composites of fuel particles suspended within a circulating flow of molten salt — a special blend of lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride called flibe. This salt river constantly absorbs and distributes the heat produced by the fuel's fission reactions.
 
But there is a formidable technical challenge to the salt coolants used in FHRs. "The salt reacts with the neutrons released during fission, and produces tritium," explains Dolan. "Tritium is one of hydrogen’s isotopes, which are notorious for permeating metal." Tritium is a potential hazard if it gets into water or air. "The worry is that tritium might escape as a gas through an FHR's heat exchanger or other metal components."

There is a potential workaround to this problem: graphite, which can trap fission products and suck up tritium before it escapes the confines of a reactor. "While people have determined that graphite can absorb a significant quantity of hydrogen, no one knows with certainty where the tritium is going to end up in the reactor,” says Dolan. So, he is focusing his doctoral research on MITR experiments to determine how effectively graphite performs as a sponge for tritium — a critical element required to model tritium transport in the complete reactor system. "  https://news.mit.edu/2019/vision-nuclear-energy-buoyed-molten-salt-0724

[acsinuk]

Brilliant reply Yor_on  Thank you so much for the super links.
QUOTE from Bill Gates outfit "At the beginning of last year TerraPower announced that the project had to be cancelled, owning to the new restrictions the Trump administration had placed on technology transfers. Since then, TerraPower and its consortium have been looking for other partners and above all another location to build a demonstration plant. I await more news."
So what are we waiting for the UK government could assist by funding one of the old nuclear stations to host the continuation of the experimental stage of a Traveling Wave Thorium reactor which we will definitely need in the future if we are to reduce carbon emissions.

[alancalverd]

To summarise Yor-on's excellent review: as with many things, the science is easy, but the engineering is not