What the hell is FLIBE?

[wtmusic]

A ball of thorium.

"FLiBe is a mixture of lithium fluoride (LiF) and beryllium fluoride (BeF2). As a molten salt it is proposed as a nuclear reactor coolant, and two different mixtures were used in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment."

<>

"As a molten salt it can serve as a coolant which can be used at high temperatures without reaching a high vapor pressure. Unlike sodium or potassium which can also be used as high-temperature coolants, it is not flammable and does not react with air or water. If the salt is exposed to water, it will absorb it, becoming sticky or even puddling. This is similar to table salt, which clumps together in humid weather."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FLiBe

Flibe Energy is a company founded by Kirk Sorenson to promote LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) technology.

"Inspiring Vision of Hope for Thorium Powered Future

Kirk Sorensen is an inspiring speaker and teacher who is motivated by an incredible vision. As he eloquently describes in the video below, he has excavated and dusted off ideas and documentation from the archives at Oak Ridge National Laboratory about using thorium in molten salt reactors. According to back of the envelope calculations by Alvin Weinberg, the leader of the effort, the thorium resources on earth could power a civilization of 7 billion people at a US level of energy use for approximately 30 billion years.

It is a compelling story that should fill you full of hope as you start your working week."

http://theenergycollective.com/rodadams/67271/inspiring-vision-hope-thorium-powered-future?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=The+Energy+Collective+%28all+posts%29

How a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Works:

http://blogs.howstuffworks.com/2009/12/01/how-a-liquid-fluoride-thorium-reactor-lftr-works/

[kristopher]

1. More nuclear industry propaganda...

...chasing it's tail from one failed technology to the next.

MIT concludes that thorium solve fewer of the problems associated with nuclear power than does the once through uranium cycle.

Sorenson is a prolific source of misinformation and half truths.

[Scuba]

2. If it works, it will be made illegal shortly...

...big oil sets our energy policy, and no one else!

[wtmusic]

3. If it's as promising as it appears to be

don't be surprised if "Exxon Energy Solutions" or "Chevron Mineral Resources" jumps into the mining game.

[kristopher]

4. It doesn't work any better than the uranium once-through fuel cycle.

Nuclear has 4 major problems associated with it, it is expensive, has significant safety issues, allows the proliferation of technologies for nuclear weapons and there is nothing to do with the waste.

When a comprehensive analysis is performed (by people without Sorenson's financial interests) the thoruim fuel cycle solves fewer of those problems than the once through uranium fuel cycle.

[DCKit]

5. Get back to us when the issue of all the existing nuclear waste has been taken care of.

It's your move.

After the waste issue is solved, we can move on to the safety issues. Shouldn't take more than a decade or two to suss out.

After all that, then I guess we can begin to talk about what materials we're going to use to contain these molten metal reactors. How hard could it be, really? Should be simple, right? We all probably have stuff in our homes that could stand up to these temperatures and the radioactivity of the core.

Just because Fukushima and Chernobyl scale incidents don't happen but once every two or three decades doesn't mean that selling nuclear power is going to get any easier.

Tell you what, why not just wait until every rooftop in the U.S. is covered with solar panels, we've got wind turbines and wave machines off every coast and we STILL need more energy than those can provide, and we'll be far more receptive.

[wtmusic]

7. I don't care whether you're receptive or not.

I post for people who are interested in practical solutions to energy problems. And who have a fundamental grasp of scale, and what practical means.

[kristopher]

9. 700 Climate action NGOs criticize Japan for promoting nuclear power

Are you saying that YOUR interest is climate and not the industry itself?

Japan criticized for pushing nuke plant exports despite accident

TOKYO (Kyodo) -- Japan has been given the Fossil of the Day "award" at a U.N. climate change conference in Panama for pushing a scheme to promote its exports of nuclear power generation technologies to developing countries as a way of curbing global warming, an international environmental group said Monday.

The Climate Action Network, which groups some 700 nongovernmental organizations in 90 countries, said in a press release it had given Japan "first place" in the award for pushing for a mechanism for exporting nuclear technology despite the ongoing crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi plant triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The network said the Fukushima calamity "certainly destroyed the myth that nuclear power is safe and clean" and rapped Japan for its failure "to learn an important lesson from the accident."

In a working group meeting on climate change in the Central American country, Japan refused to drop the option of including a scheme under which exporters of nuclear plants to developing countries can earn emissions credits in the so-called "clean development mechanism," the network said.

The mechanism...

http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20111004p2g00m0dm048000c.html

The IPCC (you know that group, right?) disagrees with the nuclear industry on what will "scale" and what is "practical".
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Full Special Report on Renewable Energy

Download here: http://srren.ipcc-wg3.de/report/IPCC_SRREN_Full_Report

Dial-up warning - 28MB

[SpoonFed]

10. Except...

your posts reads anything but practical, interesting nor contain a fundamental grasp of scale.
They read like a fan of the dying nuclear industry trying to find a last gasp of air.
Your air smells like a fart.

[Tesha]

6. Did they happen to mention anywhere along the way how toxic beryllium is? (NT)

[wtmusic]

8. Well that will just have to be dealt with, now won't it.

Somwhow I think technology in the 21st century is up to that challenge. :D

[Tesha]

11. I wasn't aware that chemical toxicity was affected by Y2K.

Meanwhile, you might want to read this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beryllium#Toxicity

And know that beryllium has been substantially phased-
out of essentially all electronic uses because of the
risk of toxicity. It used to be quite common in the
form of beryllium oxide (beryllia) washers that provided
thermal conductivity but electrical isolation for high-
powered semiconductor devices, magnetrons, and the like,
but the very high risk from the dust from broken beryllia
has caused such use to become much less-fashionable.

But hey, maybe the beryllium miners and refiners need
bailing out so why not use it in the next generation
of nukes?

Then we can party like it's 1999!

Tesha

[wtmusic]

12. Beryllium is in the same class of carcinogens as Jack Daniels

Some other Class I carcinogens:

Arsenic and arsenic compounds1
Asbestos
Benzene
Ciclosporin
Contraceptives, hormonal, combined forms (those containing both estrogen and a progestogen)3
Contraceptives, oral, sequential forms of hormonal contraception (a period of estrogen-only followed by a period of both estrogen and a progestogen)
Epstein-Barr virus
Estrogens, nonsteroidal 1
Estrogens, steroidal 1
Estrogen therapy, postmenopausal
Ethanol in alcoholic beverages
Formaldehyde
Hepatitis B virus (chronic infection with)
Hepatitis C virus (chronic infection with)
Herbal remedies containing plant species of the genus Aristolochia
Solar radiation
Ultraviolet Radiation
X-Radiation and Gamma radiation

Efforts to phase out solar radiation have failed miserably.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_IARC_Group_1_carcinogens

[Tesha]

13. So we should just accept all similar-potential toxins and carcinogens?

We shouldn't try to minimize the hazards?

Tesha

[wtmusic]

14. Nice to agree with you once in a while Tesha.

Beryllium in this application is helping to provide safe, baseload energy and thus prevent the release of

5,389,592 tons of SO2
48 tons of mercury
1,970 Tg of CO2

every year from coal-fired generating stations. Minimizing the hazards. :D

Almost forgot: Coal Ash Is More Radioactive than Nuclear Waste