Nuclear strikes back. And renewable.
ANEEL: Thorium-Based Reactor Fuel Could Support A New Wave Of Nuclear Power
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2020/09/22/aneel-a-game-changing-nuclear-fuel/amp/
With a proprietary combination of thorium (Th) and uranium (U), particularly “High Assay Low Enriched Uranium” (HALEU), ANEEL fuel can address several issues that have plagued nuclear power – cost, proliferation and waste. Plus, this fuel, being made-in-America, positions it as a prime candidate for export to emerging nuclear markets.
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But in developing nations, the need is urgent. Most do not have the infrastructure to install natural gas, wind or solar. Additionally, many do not have sufficient topography and river flow for hydro. So it’s either coal or nuclear. If you care at all about the environment, then it better be nuclear.
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The ANEEL fuel has a very high fuel burn-up rate of about 55,000 MWd/T (megawatt-day per ton of fuel) as compared to natural uranium fuel used in currently operating PHWRs/CANDUs with a burn-up of around 7,000 MWd/T. This is important in a few ways
Higher burn-up means the fuel stays in the reactor longer and gets more energy out of the same amount of fuel. Also, more neutron poisons breed in over the fuel’s use, including Pu-240,241,242 making the spent fuel prohibitively difficult to make into a weapon.
Also, a higher fuel burn-up of ANEEL fuel will reduces the waste by over 80% and ends up with much less plutonium (Pu) because more of the Pu is burned to make energy while making the spent fuel proliferation resistant. Less spent fuel means less refueling, less cost, less fuel handling and less volume to dispose.
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In an existing CANDU/PHWR using natural uranium, each fuel bundle weighs roughly 15 kg. After the first 150 days of operation, an average of eight such bundles would need to be replaced daily for the rest of the reactor’s operating life of 60 years.
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There is well over twice as much Th on earth than U. And like U, it can be extracted from seawater, making nuclear completely renewable, as renewable as the wind. India itself has more Th than U, particularly as monazite sands, a reason they have been pursuing Th in nuclear reactors for decades.