breeder nuclear reactor

[js117]

Didn't know where to put this article.

This article is on http://www.spacedaily.com/ aout Japan stating up a breeder nuclear reactor.
Had been shut down since 1995.

The Monju Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor, located in a coastal town 350 kilometres (220 miles) west of Tokyo, cleared the first hurdle of its test operations on the road to generating power at full capacity in 2013.

http://www.nuclearpowerdaily.com/report ... y_999.html

 

[neilsox]

Breeder reactor designs have a long history of becoming unsafe, but the concept is attractive as they convert useless isotopes to useful ones and produce energy as a by product. Usually the name "breeder" is avoided. Apparently the thorium reactor that some experts think will be great is a variation on the breeder. It would use thorium instead of uranium or plutonium as the principle fuel. It can even convert high level nuclear waste to low level in months instead of millions of years and extract most of the remaining energy from the retired fuel rods from existing reactors. Thorium reactors can mean nuclear fuel for a million years instead of 500 years with present reactors. Less than 500 years, if we build lots more reactors of present designs. Wind and solar energy extraction can also be expanded a thousand times, before they have extremely bad side effects. As Earth's population and living standards continue to increase, we face bad shortages of energy in a century or less, unless we ramp up alternative energy sources. We are way too dependent on dirty coal and clean coal probably won't happen ever in my opinion. Neil

 

[Floridian]

Breeder reactor designs have a long history of becoming unsafe, but the concept is attractive as they convert useless isotopes to useful ones and produce energy as a by product. Usually the name "breeder" is avoided. Apparently the thorium reactor that some experts think will be great is a variation on the breeder. It would use thorium instead of uranium or plutonium as the principle fuel. It can even convert high level nuclear waste to low level in months instead of millions of years and extract most of the remaining energy from the retired fuel rods from existing reactors. Thorium reactors can mean nuclear fuel for a million years instead of 500 years with present reactors. Less than 500 years, if we build lots more reactors of present designs. Wind and solar energy extraction can also be expanded a thousand times, before they have extremely bad side effects. As Earth's population and living standards continue to increase, we face bad shortages of energy in a century or less, unless we ramp up alternative energy sources. We are way too dependent on dirty coal and clean coal probably won't happen ever in my opinion. Neil

Yes, using a modern, state-of-the-art nuclear reactor is much worse than using a power plant powered by fossil fuels... those have no effect on the environment... oh wait.