Micro molten salt reactor can fit on a truck, power 1k homes. When it's built | Hacker News Reader

Micro molten salt reactor can fit on a truck, power 1k homes. When it's built

theregister.com

28 pointsriffraff16 comments

I think it's important to point out that once this reactor has started... it still will require cooling. The decay heat won't stop instantly just because the mass is no longer in criticality. There will be daughter products producing 1% of the heat for quite some time if it's Thorium based, or 10% of the heat for Uranium based salts.

Also note that molten salts, while they won't burn, are still capable of quite explosive reactions with water.

It's not as simple as a chip, which you can just turn off.

If you put a battery between the reactor and the user, you might get pretty close.

Hopefully this will turn out awesome and the world can finally accept and use nuclear power for good.

It produces neutrons and exploding atoms, so it has already turned out shit.

Sorry, what's the alternative?

Oh, right. Fossil fuels.

Or windmills with a terrible carbon footprint thanks to the concrete and deforestation. Not to mention the impact on the landscape, and the fact that they kill a ton of birds.

Or else we can use solar panels. Keep digging that ground for precious materials and poison local population.

Yeah, you're right. Nuclear is dangerous.

This could be a game changer. The security issue needs to be addressed but if this can be manufactured and operated affordably it could be the last push to decarbonize the economy (save for flight, which could use "green fuel").

Yeah, or you just put a nuclear reactor on the planes. If it fits in a truck, it fits in a plane.

Have they solved the corrosion problem?

The article says they have removed the need for most?/all? of the water which was a large part of the corrosive properties.

What happens when someone steals the truck?

They can use it to power 1000 homes.

It would make those "you wouldn't steal a ..." commercials a lot more entertaining if one of the options was "nuclear reactor"

So do you drop the thing, add some rebar gridwork, and then pour concrete over the whole thing ? So that it is somewhat easier to pull out and drive away with than, say, an ATM ?

I think, this was more of a football field comparison.

"Fits in a normal commercial truck" is an important criteria for keeping transport costs reasonable. If it fits in a truck, you can build a factory and ship them without needing to arrange a bunch road closures with every delivery.

Though you might need to close roads anyways, not sure what the rules for transporting nuclear fuel are.

Did theonion bought theregister ? Or i miss something ?

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