MSRs also seem to harken back to the Physics rather than dally in technological issues. I like the concept whereby we can build a "black box" whereby Fertile material goes in, and extremely high quality Process heat and fission product comes out. In a Sub reactor, ultimately more fuel comes out than fission product. It's still a "once through" fuel cycle.KitemanSA wrote:True they are not extremely large, but larger than an MSR. And all the otherstuff in an MSR can also be compact by comparison to a PWR.MSimon wrote:Shipboard reactors (50 to 150 MWth) are not very large. It is all the other stuff that takes up the space.KitemanSA wrote:Remember, the original molten salt reactor was designed with the intention of powering an aircraft. They can be COMPACT!!!
The other thing I didn't mention last time is they tend to be very LIGHT in comparison too. No massive pressure containment vessle.
Now given the great physical potentialities of MSRs, how close, technologically can we get?
There seems to be a lot of political force that trends toward intransigence. The perspective: "Gotta protect the cash flows generated by existing systems" seems to be a strengthening American philosophy as existing energy Industries are now long maturing. This intransigence will have strong effect on any new energy technologies that threaten existing and mature energy production technologies.