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Re:Triso particles have safety features that may power a new... by tersers on Friday July 03, 2020 @04:53PM (#23727521)
I also believe it's true of liquid fluoride thorium reactors: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reacto...

I remember watching a documentary on nuclear power in the US and how the thorium reactor was the focus of a lot of research in the 70s, but I can't remember for sure.

Re:Triso particles have safety features that may power a new... by pjscott on Friday July 03, 2020 @05:06PM (#23727655)
To clarify: molten fueled reactors (like LFTRs) trivially can't have their fuel accidentally melt, because their fuel is already molten. (And there are some nice options for dumping their fuel into a subcritical passively-cooled configuration in case of an emergency.) This is different from TRISO fuel, which isn't supposed to be molten in normal operation but which structurally limits the spread of fuel and fission products at high temperatures.
Re:Triso particles have safety features that may power a new... by acidburnNSA on Friday July 03, 2020 @05:08PM (#23727668)
They can melt. They all do during fuel synthesis. They're pre-melted.
Re:Triso particles have safety features that may power a new... by acidburnNSA on Friday July 03, 2020 @05:09PM (#23727673)
No. LFTRs have fluid fuel. There are some solid-fueled clean molten salt cooled reactors that are called Fluoride salt cooled high-temperature reactors (FHRs).