Liquid Metal Cooled Reactors Archives

Recycling used nuclear fuel – Argonne research explained in 4 min video

Rod Adams · February 22, 2013 · 8 Comments

One of the most frequently used arguments against using nuclear energy is “the waste issue.” When people ask me, “what do you do with the waste”, my standard answer is “recycle it.” The truly curious then ask for more information. A few days ago, Nuclear Street shared a video produced by Argonne National Laboratory that explains their ongoing research into pyroprocessing.

This video was first posted in May, 2012. Even if I have linked to it before, it is worth watching again. It is encouraging to remember that there are plenty of options that enable nuclear energy to have an amazing potential for future improvements by following the adage of “reduce, reuse, and recycle” to shrink an already minuscule quantity of waste per unit of energy to even smaller sizes and easier to handle forms.
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FFTF – What could a functional Fast Flux Test Facility do for the US?

Rod Adams · December 10, 2012 · 7 Comments

A friend shared the above video about the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF). I thought it was worth sharing and discussing, though I am not sure how current it is. The FFTF was not a shining example of government efficiency; it was initially conceived in the 1960s, finally completed in the late 1970s, started up [...]

Pronuclear videos continuing to proliferate – The Nuclear Option

Rod Adams · May 6, 2012 · 22 Comments

With a hat tip to Ben Heard at Decarbonize SA, I thought it might inspire you to see two videos side by side. These videos were created in geographic locations that are about as far apart as you can get and still be on Earth. As far as I can tell, neither creative team knew [...]

Pursuing the unlimited energy dream – history of the Integral Fast Reactor

Guest Author · February 8, 2012 · 30 Comments

Note: Len Koch, whose participation in nuclear energy research started in the 1940s, wrote the below open letter to colleagues who are striving to restore interest in the progress that they made in research and development of the Integral Fast Reactor during the period from 1954-1994 the year that President Clinton and Hazel O’Leary, his [...]

Cloistered nuclear scientists needed Sun Tzu’s advice – “Know your enemy”

Rod Adams · January 10, 2012 · 18 Comments

I just received my copy of Plentiful Energy: The Story of the Integral Fast Reactor. The complex history of a simple reactor technology with emphasis on its scientific basis for non-specialists by Charles Till and Yoon Il Chang. There is no doubt that it is going to be a fascinating read, but I had to [...]

Update from Hyperion Power Generation Chief Operating Officer

Rod Adams · September 21, 2011 · 16 Comments

Yesterday morning I wrote a post titled Where is Hyperion Power Generation headed now? By the time I was ready for a lunch break, I had received an email from the Chief Operating Officer of Hyperion Power Generation offering to fill me in on some of the details that he was able to make public. [...]

Update on fast reactor group challenge to MIT

Rod Adams · July 29, 2011 · 25 Comments

Steve Kirsch, an MIT graduate and enough of an entrepreneurial success to have an auditorium at the school that carries his name, has updated his challenge to the faculty at his alma mater in a post on The Huffington Post titled Is MIT Afraid to Debate Nuclear Report?. Steve is quite serious about this challenge [...]

Fast reactor advocates throw down gauntlet to MIT authors

Rod Adams · July 24, 2011 · 35 Comments

Near the end of 2010, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a summary of a report titled The Future of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle as part of its MIT Energy Initiative. The complete report was released a few months ago. The conclusions published that report initiated a virtual firestorm of reaction among the members of [...]

The Atomic Show #148 – Hyperion Power Module Update

Rod Adams · January 22, 2010 · 2 Comments

On January 21, 2010, I caught up with Forrest Rudin and TJ Trapp of Hyperion Power Generation. Forrest is Hyperion’s Chief of Staff; TJ is the Vice President of Engineering. They were on the road meeting with various stakeholders to explain more about their product. They took the time out of their schedule to provide [...]

The Atomic Show #118 – Steve Kirsch, Entrepreneur, Philanthropist, Converted Fan of Integral Fast Reactor (IFR)

Rod Adams · December 10, 2008 · 5 Comments

Two years ago, Steve Kirsch, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and philanthropist, was sure that the US did not need nuclear power. Now he thinks it can save the planet. Find out what changed his mind. More and more people who are sincerely concerned about the impact that human activity is making on the planet are [...]

Recalling the Integral Fast Reactor (IFR) passive safety experiments

Rod Adams · August 19, 2008 · Leave a Comment

I got notified via a Google Alert on “small nuclear power plants” about a post on a blog that I had not previously visited. The post was titled The Environmentalists Nuclear Debate (2) Mark Lynas. The post provided a link to a very interesting article by Mark Lynas in the New Republic titled How nuclear [...]

Liquid Metal Fast Breeder: Right Answer, Wrong Question

Rod Adams · October 1, 1995

Soon after the development of the first nuclear reactors, scientists and engineers began to discuss the possibility of a nuclear fuel shortage. As far as these nuclear pioneers knew, there was a rather limited supply of uranium that was concentrated in certain areas of Africa and Eastern Europe. The situation was considered even more critical [...]