Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power
by jb55 on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @03:17PM
(#10222592)
Take a look at http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/downloads/plutonium-238... for how it could be done
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power
by psswrdshmashwrd on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @10:06AM
(#10220682)
Please see: Liquid fluoride thorium reactor
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power
by jobu on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @10:42AM
(#10220894)
The wikipedia page doesn't say much about Pu-238, but there is this under the "Proliferation resistance" bullet:
"...LFTRs produce very little plutonium, around 15 kg per gigawatt-year of electricity (this is the output of a single large reactor over a year). This plutonium is also mostly Pu-238..."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reacto...
In a LFTR the fuels are dissolved in liquid salts, so the downside is it may be very difficult to separate out the Pu-238 for use.
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power
by humbleMouse on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @10:11AM
(#10220723)
Yeah, weird why that is getting down-voted.
Re:NASA Struggles Over Deep-Space Plutonium Power
by PhantomGremlin on Tuesday September 15, 2015 @01:48PM
(#10222038)
It should get down-voted.
The original post was two words. Okay, cute. But then the subsequent "explanation" was four words.
There should have been at least a sentence or two of explanation. At the minimum there could have been a link to Wikipedia. That's common courtesy.
Most people don't come to HN to spend decades learning obscure things, very slowly, from Zen masters.
Please explain how you would build a shiny new thorium reactor with 238Pu production capability on a budget competitive with the existing DoE 237Np -> 238Pu transmutation process in an existing research reactor.