News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has come. Parent comment

Re:Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has ... by jonkoops on Thursday March 24, 2022 @06:56AM (#30788212)
A better reactor design could allow more commonly available radioactive (but non-fissile) elements such as Thorium to be bred into fissile elements such as Uranium-233.

This kind of reactor is called a Breeder reactor [1], for example the liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) [2].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breeder_reactor

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reacto...

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Developers of small modular reactors hope their time has ... by p_l on Thursday March 24, 2022 @07:48AM (#30788570)
Another mostly forgotten aspect is that there are designs that explicitly work without enrichment, so no lengthy and limiting process of enrichment necessary (now, postprocessing the waste to separate materials to mix into new fuel, that would be useful)
[ Parent | on HN ]