Bill Gates TED talk on his view for the future of energy
Bill Gates is working with experts developing a new kind of nuclear reactor that would run on nuclear waste. We have trillions of dollars worth of nuclear waste in the US. It’s useless to create nuclear weapons with, and until recently, it was thought too expensive and difficult to build. These reactors are called Traveling Wave Reactors.
“A traveling-wave reactor, or TWR, is a kind of nuclear reactor that can convert fertile material into fissile fuel as it runs using the process of nuclear transmutation. TWRs differ from other kinds of fast-neutron and breeder reactors in their ability to, once started, reach a state whereafter they can achieve very high fuel utilization while using no enriched uranium and no reprocessing, instead burning fuel made from depleted uranium, natural uranium, thorium, spent fuel removed from light water reactors, or some combination of these materials. TWRs are also capable, in principle, of reusing their own fuel. The used metal fuel from TWRs will still contain a high fissile content. Recast and reclad into new driver pellets without separations, this recycled fuel could be used to start fission in additional TWRs, thus displacing the need to enrich uranium altogether.” – http://www.terrapower.com/Technology/TravelingWaveReactor.aspx
As this is a test for my first blog, I thought this TED talk was rather interesting to share. Company scientists estimate that wide deployment of TWRs could enable projected global stockpiles of depleted uranium to sustain 80% of the world’s population at U.S. per capita energy usages for over a millennium. However, many US citizens are opposed to nuclear power. In short 1) it is very expensive and 2) renewable and efficiency increases (Wind/Solar) are a far more effective path to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Of course safety is another huge factor for people who remember Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, but we have had almost 450 civilian nuclear reactors running worldwide for the last 24 years now, with not a single accident. Safety standards are very high now, largely thanks to the big 3 historic accidents.
I believe Nuclear Energy is not the boogeyman we make it out to be, but is on par with wind and hydro energy, about twice as clean as solar, six times as clean as “clean” coal, and ten times as clean as natural gas. – http://www.iaea.org/OurWork/ST/NE/Pess/assets/Weisser_Howells&Rogner_Nuclear_post_2012.pdf
Plutonium Pandemonium 