China verfolgt das Konzept eines schnellen Flüssig­salz­brüters weiter

• „On the edge of the Gobi Desert, at a place called Wuwei, the People’s Government of Gansu Province, announced in May 2021 that it will soon test a reactor with nuclear power that has a high level of safety, very low CO2 emissions, is inexpensive, and will not need uranium and water to cool. It will have the particularity of using molten salts instead of water. For the development of this project, the Chinese government has invested more than 535 million euros over the past ten years. The construction of the site began on September 30, 2018.“ – bto: Jetzt kann man das mögen oder nicht, es zeigt aber, dass der Rest der Welt nicht bereit ist, auf einen Weg von Verzicht und Deindustrialisierung zu setzen.
• „This experimental nuclear reactor will use thorium as fuel. China could become the first country to have the opportunity to commercialise this technology. Thorium is a weakly radioactive metal that occurs naturally in rocks. It is currently rarely used in industry. It is a by-product of the growing rare earth mining industry in China. It is therefore a very interesting alternative to uranium.“ – bto: Das klingt zumindest gut. Ob es so ist, wage ich nicht zu beurteilen. Generell finde ich es aber besser, dass immerhin versucht wird, alternative Wege zu gehen. Nur über erneuerbare Energien kann es bis zur Lösung der Speicherproblematik nicht funktionieren.
• „According to the co-winner of the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics, Carlo Rubbia, the comparison of the energy produced by one tonne of thorium fission would be equivalent to about 200 tonnes of uranium. Given that 7 grams of uranium is equivalent to about one tonne of coal, one tonne of thorium would replace about 28 million tonnes of coal. Thinking about the potential success of this project, one can imagine the future tonnes of CO2 that will be avoided to manage the climate emergency.“ – bto: Es wäre die Lösung für die Energiefrage und damit für die Klimaproblematik.
• „The earth’s thorium reserves can supply the world’s energy needs for tens of thousands of years. Thorium has a low cost, around €250,000 per tonne, or €0.029/electric MWh. Compared to uranium, at about €10/electric MWh, thorium would be around 350 times cheaper per electric MWh produced. It also has the potential to generate a much smaller amount of very long-life radioactive waste than conventional reactors. The total volume could be about 35 times less than conventional reactors to produce the same amount of energy. The 99.99% of the waste would be stable in 300 years, instead of tens of thousands of years for current fuels.“ – bto: Auch das sind sehr erfreuliche Werte, wie gesagt, wenn sie stimmen.
• „There is another advantage: this type of reactor does not need to be built close to waterways. The molten salts themselves serve as a coolant, unlike conventional uranium power plants, which need huge amounts of water to cool their reactors. By this principle, the reactors can be installed in isolated and arid regions, such as deserts.“ – bto: Auch das ist ein erheblicher Vorteil dieser Technologie.
• „However, some critics argue that the feasibility of molten salt reactors remains questionable, as it creates other technical problems to be solved. At very high temperatures, the salt can corrode the reactor structures and must be protected accordingly.“ – bto: Das ist eine technische Herausforderung, stellt aber keinen Unterschied zu den Herausforderungen mit der Speicherung dar.
• „If the experiments are successful, China plans to build a reactor with a capacity of 373 megawatts by 2030. It could electrify hundreds of thousands of homes. (…) Molten salt reactors are just one of many advanced nuclear technologies in which China is currently investing. In 2002, an intergovernmental forum identified six promising reactor technologies to be accelerated by 2030, including reactors cooled by lead or sodium liquids. China has research and development programs for each one of them.“ – bto: Es hilft bei dem strategischen Ziel, unabhängig von Energieimporten zu werden.
• „As the European Union enters a major energy crisis, it (…) undoubtedly finds its foundations in the antinuclear ideology of the past and the delay in nuclearising and electrifying as much as possible as many industrial processes and goods using fossil fuels as possible. This obscurantism has undeniably delayed the construction of sufficient new nuclear production units. (…) Let’s anticipate the future, in the same way that fossil fuels have replaced medieval energies such as wind and solar power, nuclear energy must replace fossil fuels for centuries to come. With the development of nuclear energy, fossil fuels will become medieval energy for centuries to come.“ – bto: Nett formuliert, aber es dürfte auch andere Lösungen geben. Wir müssen sie halt erfinden und sollten unsere Kräfte daraufsetzen.

→ Wikipedia: „Thorium”