The US is so far behind the Chinese

I found this interesting video on Chinese LFTR (molten salt) nuclear reactor technologies:



The scale of researching going on dwarfs anything being done in the US. We have handfuls they have hundreds!

"Chinese academy of science"

"With political power behind the molten salt reactor reactor..."

"Fully closed nuclear fuel cycle"

If these designs become production deployed the price of oil will plummet.

a reply to: dfnj2015

The price of oil will go nowhere, actually.

You may be thinking coal...

As for the technology, looks interesting...

But it's still a nuclear tech so we won't be using it.

Wonder how much of that technology they stole from others?

I'm betting a LARGE majority.

a reply to: Lumenari

I heard somewhere recently that nuclear power is cleaner than our current clean energy systems like windmills and solar. Unsure if that's true or not.

a reply to: Lumenari

www.nextbigfuture.com... gates is on our project so not to worried and were working with canada as well

In June 2017, Terrestrial began a feasibility study for the siting of the first commercial IMSR at Canadian Nuclear Laboratories’ Chalk River site. It has also said it intends to submit an application to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission for a design certification or construction permit in late 2019. Terrestrial plans to bring IMSR power plants to market in the 2020s. Terrestrial Energy is developing a 190 megawatt small modular molten salt reactor that will cost less than $1 billion to build. This will result in kilowatt-per-hour costs of less than 5 cents, a price competitive with power from natural gas. Terrestrial Energy of Canada has signed a contract for technical services with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC) in Karlsruhe, Germany. JRC will perform confirmatory studies of the fuel and primary coolant salt mixture for Terrestrial’s Integrated Molten Salt Reactor (IMSR). Recently, Terrestrial Energy Inc.’s (TEI) announced completion of the first phase of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission’s (CNSC) pre-licensing vendor design review.

en.wikipedia.org... wiki page on the matter

a reply to: dfnj2015

Environmentalists turned nuclear into the boogeyman.
Even though it's safe and clean.

And we did fiddle with sodium reactors in the 50's.
The benefit is that the original fuel doesnt need replacement if I remember correctly.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

This one didnt work out so well.

a reply to: RalagaNarHallas

Sounds good to me!

I still think we are a little far off as far as making solar feasibile so we will need something to bridge that gap.

We don't have enough rivers to make hydro viable as a large percentage, wind is nowhere near as green or sustainable as people think.

Coal as an energy producer is finite, so we are going to eventually have to do something.

Natural gas to an oil company is a waste product. It costs them money.

But oil won't go anywhere unless we get rid of a lot of things.

Like plastic.

Our government keeps saying it has much better stuff because we spend so much on Military, but the Chinese can accomplish what we get for our bucks on a tenth of the money since the economy there is way different. Just because we pay contractors way too much doesn't mean they are any better than Chinese contractors. China will be outshining us a lot of ways in the future. Even Russia gets way more bang for the buck than the USA does, the USA is a country full of deceivers raping the taxpayers.

originally posted by: Middleoftheroad
a reply to: Lumenari

I heard somewhere recently that nuclear power is cleaner than our current clean energy systems like windmills and solar. Unsure if that's true or not.

it's so clean, that the deadly radioactive half-life of the spent rods is only 10,000 years. the rods need a special storage unit that will last several hundred thousand years to keep it from contaminating ground water.

oh, btw, the rods are used to do one thing, boil water. yep, nothing fancy, just boil water to create steam to move a turbine. hundred thousand years of death to boil water. i'm truly a big fan of this idea. i also like the idea of using a mega-ton nuclear bomb to drive a nail.

sounds a lot better than solar or wind to me.

a reply to: SKEPTEK

originally posted by: SKEPTEK
Wonder how much of that technology they stole from others?

I'm betting a LARGE majority.

Yea pretty much all of it. China does NOT have a history of industrial creativity or innovation, it's a function of their culture. Their specialty is ripping off the innovators, and then producing poor quality copies of those products.

originally posted by: SKEPTEK
Wonder how much of that technology they stole from others?

I'm betting a LARGE majority.

I used to think that too. We had a radio circuit we purchased from the Chinese. It cost $4. It was designed by a Chinese engineer because I talked with the guy. It was the most amazing design. It was a $4 part and it was as if it were design by the valedictorian of an MIT graduating class.

I think given that no manufacturing is done in the states anymore, the Chinese have all the practical experience needed to make LFTR reactors a reality.

It's a world market for oil. If the Chinese stop buying oil the price will drop because the supply will be so great.

China isn't interested in clean energy. They are communists(like the op) interested in expanding state power via hijacking the means of production and labor.

Anyone wondering just has to look at China's actions in the South China sea to understand what they do to anyone in their way.

a reply to: dfnj2015

People automatically equate oil with electricity.

Oil is an energy source, but primarily used in the transportation industry.

Fuel for vehicles.

So putting a nuclear reactor on every corner would certainly change the electricity market...

But really wouldn't effect oil at all.

Unless we start making nuclear vehicles...

originally posted by: Lumenari
a reply to: dfnj2015

People automatically equate oil with electricity.

Oil is an energy source, but primarily used in the transportation industry.

Fuel for vehicles.

So putting a nuclear reactor on every corner would certainly change the electricity market...

But really wouldn't effect oil at all.

Unless we start making nuclear vehicles...

what about electric cars? wouldn’t we just switch to mostly electric cars and phase combustion engines out more quickly, reducing the need for oil?

a reply to: DARKJEDIG

I would assume then we would need to start going to other planets and start mining, as we don't have the raw materials available to do that.

Which is why in the green new dream they needed to connect everything with high speed rail.

Groceries, after all, don't just appear in the grocery store.

They get there by burning diesel.

a reply to: dfnj2015


IDK. LMSR is nothing new. Neither are gas cooled ones.

The difference is implementing ideas and not letting them sit. We, the US, should have been doing thorium reactors years ago but the nuclear reactors were made to produce weapon grade material, not energy. Oh, sure, it was a great and useful by-product but make no mistakes about it: nuclear weapons was the primary goal.

Here we sit. There is probably an operational nuclear fusion reactor built by a certain defense contractor that they are sitting on (withholding from public use). Not because they do not want to release it to the public but because the whole energy game shifts. So, giving a false time-line thus allowing coal and oil industries time to adjust they sit.

Think about it. How many car companies are switching to EV? How many have announced that they are switching by "202x"?? The big ones have. There are even hydrogen fuel celled (??) semis coming to a road near you later this year or early next.

So turn on CFR-X and start making helium from hydrogen isotopes releasing fast neutrons that fly into your FlBe blanket which then is heat exchanged to turn a turbine. What happens when everybody goes to sleep and demand drops? You either store it in some long term storage device like RFB or flywheel. Or, you can produce hydrogen. Heck, probably both!

Then everything runs on electricity. Hydrogen fuel cells convert (redox, like the batteries in RFB) back to water and electricity. There are electric vehicles now. They are setting up for this to happen.

We all know that nuclear fusion does not solve everything. And nuclear fission, and oil, and gas, will also be around but it is happening as we read this in the US of A. At least the groundwork is being laid.

Also note, that Europe has started into energy storage and green hydrogen production. South Korea and Australia are laying ground work for hydrogen based economy (Aus. made a membrane that converts ammonia to hydrogen. They plan on shipping ammonia around the region made from solar and wind power).

Although impressive in size and scope, China has to move away from coal. Type-IV nuclear reactors have been on the road map for some time (Wikipedia), and are now, around 2020, coming on-line (Russia has one fast reactor up and the other coming online this year, IIRC).

About time too! Then the new kid on the block will show up! Then things really take off! So look for boring stories about energy law, RFB MoU purchases, and new "lease and use" energy storage. And once they build a room temperature superconductor watch the Grid change! Only then will you see the scope of what is truly coming down the pike!

China is huge, It's not a surprise their technology has surpassed that of most nations.
Just because America invented the F-35 first doesn't make the military vastly superior to everyone else because now every country has their own version of the nuclear bomb or jet fighter. Also China was using technology like gunpowder long before Europe knew of it.

Eh. They wanted it more. What are we going to do with space, anyway? Once our super AI and theirs get together, it will all be irrelevant anyway.

Good for them. If they are willing to take nuclear down a better path in the interests of energy security good luck on them.

In the UK our great plans were to not renew our nuclear 25 years ago and become critically dependent on imported gas for our base load electricity and our domestic heating. Super smart we are. Sarc.

Maybe we'll buy some Chinese plants in a few decades when gas supply gets disrupted and our lights go out.

originally posted by: SKEPTEK
Wonder how much of that technology they stole from others?

I'm betting a LARGE majority.

Yep ... The premise of this post is rather bogus, smells of propaganda.

How recently has anyone heard of some great new forward leap in any technology coming out of China?

Far cheaper to just steal new tech than innovate themselves.