Thursday, March 05, 2009

The 100 Year Reactor: Green Atoms in Our Lifetime

It seems that some private nuclear reactor funding is starting to yield useful results.

As it runs, the core in a traveling-­wave reactor gradually converts nonfissile material into the fuel it needs. Nuclear reactors based on such designs "theoretically could run for a couple of hundred years" without refueling, says John G­illeland, manager of nuclear programs at Intellectual Ventures.

This design is called the Travelling Wave Reactor and it could conceivably run without having to be refueled for 100 years! Now that is just strait-up amazing. That takes care of the proliferation threat as well as the waste problem all at once.

This along with the Liquid-Fluoride Reactor will usher in a new wave of "Green" Atoms. If Obama doesn't fund this research ASAP then he is as bad as Bush standing in the way of stem cells. All of the wind power and solar plants in the world will not add up to a tenth of what these Green Reactors can provide. Anyone that is serious about getting rid of global warming should fund this research right now.

No comments: