Merk, B.; Litskevich, D.; Whittle, K.R.; Bankhead, M.; Taylor, R.J.; Mathers, D. On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power. Energies2017, 10, 867.
Merk, B.; Litskevich, D.; Whittle, K.R.; Bankhead, M.; Taylor, R.J.; Mathers, D. On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power. Energies 2017, 10, 867.
Merk, B.; Litskevich, D.; Whittle, K.R.; Bankhead, M.; Taylor, R.J.; Mathers, D. On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power. Energies2017, 10, 867.
Merk, B.; Litskevich, D.; Whittle, K.R.; Bankhead, M.; Taylor, R.J.; Mathers, D. On a Long Term Strategy for the Success of Nuclear Power. Energies 2017, 10, 867.
Abstract
The current generation of nuclear reactors are evolutionary in design, mostly based on the technology originally designed to power submarines, and dominated by Light Water Reactors. The aims of the GenIV consortium are driven by sustainability, safety and reliability, economics, and proliferation resistance. The aims are extended here to encompass the ultimate and universal vision for strategic development of energy production, the ‘perpetuum mobile’ – at least as close as possible. We propose to rethink nuclear reactor design with the mission to develop a system which uses no fresh resources and produces no fresh waste during operation as well as generates power safe and reliably in economic way. The results of the innovative simulations presented here demonstrate that, from a theoretical perspective, it is feasible to fulfil the mission through the reuse of spent nuclear fuel from currently operating reactors as the fuel for a new reactor. The produced waste is less burdensome than current spent nuclear fuel which is used as feed to the system. However, safety, reliability and operational economics will need to be demonstrated to create the basis for the long term success of nuclear reactors as a major carbon free, sustainable, and applied highly reliable energy source.
Keywords
nuclear; reactor; spent fuel; P&T; innovation strategy; molten salt reactor
Subject
Engineering, Energy and Fuel Technology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
