Comments on: TerraPower: How The Traveling Wave Nuclear Reactor Works

By: William Thibodeau

William Thibodeau — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 02:37:00 +0000

RT @Prof_Thea: TerraPower: How The Traveling Wave Nuclear Reactor Works http://t.co/sanOMlfJ

By: FreeDumb Fighter!

FreeDumb Fighter! — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 01:34:26 +0000

RT @Prof_Thea: TerraPower: How The Traveling Wave Nuclear Reactor Works http://t.co/sanOMlfJ

By: Thea Leonard

Thea Leonard — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:10:04 +0000

TerraPower: How The Traveling Wave Nuclear Reactor Works http://t.co/sanOMlfJ

By: Megazoid

Megazoid — Sun, 06 Feb 2011 22:47:42 +0000

I love the flippant way you discribe Chernobyl as a nature reserve… and habitable after a mere 20 years! It’s amusing how somebody could trivialise an event that nearly leveled 200 sq km, and burnt it’s way through the Earth’s mantle. 20 Hiroshima’s, basically only avoided by the disaster crews throwing their lives at it. I can, and will, never comprehend the bravery and sacrifice of those men.

Statistically nuclear reactors are safe, but there are better alternatives. I think they have their role as a stop-gap energy source.

By: Tim Gamey

Tim Gamey — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 20:59:38 +0000

Sorry to break it to you mate but there is a huge difference between production grade plutonium and weapons grade plutonium, a civilian reactor is incapable of producing weapons grade plutonium. For weapons grade plutonium we have reactors built specifically for its production. That and the fact that plutonium is not used in a uranium reactor. (Simply looking at their numbers in the periodic table can tell you why)

As for your concern as to nuclear safety, there has only been three major incidents involving nuclear reactors (The Chernobyl incident, which is now incidentally a nature reserve, Three Mile Island which was a 1 in a million mechanical failure [There are new protocols in place which prevent that] and one other which I can’t recall at the time) All of which occurred before the 90s you’d be surprised how far nuclear safety protocols have gone in the last 20 years. If you want to hear something new, nuclear radiation decays over relatively short periods of time (Chernobyl around 20 years and its habitable again) accidents involving fossil fuels however do not. (Coal waste pools flooding into farming communities have a worse effect on crop growing than the Great Depression “Dust Bowl”

By: Tech

Tech — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 01:58:32 +0000

First oil is liquid money just waiting for someone to drill a hole and let it out-that’s the great attraction of oil and gas and made most of the wealth in this country. J Paul Getty said the secret to great wealth was:”Get up early, work hard, and strike oil” The Rockefellers knew that too but they stole it. The dollar is backed by it and our troops in the middle east aren’t there for the sand-they are there to control all the nations access to oil. Trouble is now the Han Chinese read Sun Tzu and are getting the best deals at our expense. Nuclear is used to boil water not pump into a gas tank. Solar is used to boil water or produce electricity but not pump into a gas tank and make plastics and this technology if it even works in the real world is years off and will only heat water too. The reality is we need to either change our lifetyles or fight over the resources and food like animals which is kind of what is going on. Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, David Rockefeller and the other elitists would like to take out a few billion first but then we may just do that on our own as it seems to be in our nature anyway. Until then? Well I like John Fredricksen the owner of Seadrill, Golden Ocean, Frontline, Ship Finance International, etc. who is not political just a practical businesman. He became the oil tanker king during the Iran/Iraq war and may become the offshore drilling king too. I’ll just play the dollar oil game and ride the money and enjoy my SUV as I figure we’re doomed like so many other species before us. Until then we have beer!(the aliens will try and figure it all out later)

By: Henk

Henk — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 08:41:51 +0000

Clean energy is of course only part of the solution: http://www.noisepollution.nl/?p=2342

By: Giovanni

Giovanni — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 18:59:22 +0000

Even a small fraction of the grey matter in the graphics above, which to a large share would consist of highly pressurized gases, would be sufficient to introduce more poisonous radiation to the planet than all nuke bomb tests conducted so far together.

Welcome to the shiny new nuclear world which comes with a dirty old secret.

By: Bill Gates: The Hurdles for Energy & Backing 5 Battery Startups | Empiricator

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 10:45:27 +0000

[...] innovation ‘may not be solvable in an economic way.’ In terms of nuclear, Gates has backed nuclear startup TerraPower, but he notes that getting nuclear plants approved by regulatory bodies takes such a long time that [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 14:27:56 +0000

One of the things invisioned with this technology is the ability to sell it to other countries. This would allow a sealed reactor to be deployed and operate in developing countries with a greatly reduced danger of sensitive nuclear technology and materials being misused.