autoevolution
 

Molten Salt Micro-Nuclear Reactor Is Small Enough to Fit in the Back of a Truck

Scientists may have found the answer to our energy needs, and as much as we don’t like it, it has the shape of a nuclear reactor. Nevertheless, it is much safer than everything in operation today and could be built small enough to fit in the back of a truck.
Molten salt micro-nuclear reactor is small enough to fit in the back of a truck 6 photos
Photo: BYU
Picture of molten FLiBe saltA top-down view of the Molten Salt Reactor ExperimentMolten Salt ReactorMSRE Molten Salt Reactor Oak RidgeMSRE Pumps
The world is at odds with nuclear energy because of a couple of high-profile accidents that scared everyone. The 1986 Chornobyl disaster killed nearly 100 people, but the 2011 Fukushima basically sealed nuclear energy’s fate, even though only one person was confirmed dead due to radiation exposure. Soon after, Germany announced phasing out all nuclear power plants, and other countries followed suit. That’s why we’re now in trouble, energy-wise.

Despite people’s worries, nuclear reactors are still our best bet in fighting climate change and quenching our energy thirst. An average power plant produces 8,000 times more power than fossil fuels and is environmentally friendly. Designing safer nuclear reactors could pacify anti-nuclear activists. Hopefully, Brigham Young University (BYU) scientists have developed exactly that.

Their approach is different from today’s commercial nuclear reactors. Usually, the by-products of nuclear fission in nuclear reactors will radiate massive amounts of heat. They are kept in solid fuel rods, and water runs through them to keep everything cool enough. If not enough cooling water is available, the rods can overheat, and the risk of a nuclear meltdown is high. In the molten salt reactor developed at BYU, all the radioactive by-products are dissolved into molten salt.

Salt has an extremely high melting temperature of around 550 degrees Celsius (1,022 degrees Fahrenheit). It doesn’t take long for the radioactive elements in the molten salt to fall beneath the melting point. Once the salt crystalizes, the radiated heat will be absorbed into the salt, and there’s no danger of a nuclear meltdown.

There is another benefit of a molten salt reactor, and that is the potential to eliminate dangerous nuclear waste. The reaction products are safely contained within the salt and can be recovered and used elsewhere. Molybdenum-99, Cobalt-60, gold, platinum, and neodymium are the most precious elements that can be recovered that way. And that’s not all.

“As we pulled out valuable elements, we found we could also remove oxygen and hydrogen,” BYU professor and nuclear engineering expert Matthew Memmott said. “Through this process, we can make the salt fully clean again and reuse it. We can recycle the salt indefinitely.”

The best part is the scalability of the reactor developed by the BYU researchers. While a typical rector is 30 ft x 30 ft (9 m x 9 m) and built with a little over one square mile of exclusion zone to reduce radiation risk, the BYU reactor is only 4 ft x 7 ft (1.2 m x 2.1 m), with no similarly large zone surrounding it. It can produce enough energy to power 1,000 American homes, and everything needed to run the reactor is designed to fit onto a 40-foot truck bed.
If you liked the article, please follow us:  Google News icon Google News Youtube Instagram X (Twitter)

Editor's note: For illustration purposes, the pictures in the gallery show different molten salt reactor designs and features

About the author: Cristian Agatie
Cristian Agatie profile photo

After his childhood dream of becoming a "tractor operator" didn't pan out, Cristian turned to journalism, first in print and later moving to online media. His top interests are electric vehicles and new energy solutions.
Full profile

 

Would you like AUTOEVOLUTION to send you notifications?

You will only receive our top stories