Next generation of Nuclear power?

**IZob** · October 31, 2011, 05:30 AM

I was gona place this in the PM thread, but I didnt think it was 'political' enough? I don't know, you decided.

THE NEXT GENERATION of nuclear plants may be cooled by gas—helium gas. Such reactors were proposed in the 1960s but rarely pursued; only a few have ever been built. But that could change. Though issues such as fuel storage are a potential concern, gas reactors—which can’t melt down—may be a way forward in the wake of Japan’s nuclear disaster.
Using helium as a coolant has at least a couple of advantages. For one thing, it’s inert, so it can’t become radioactive like the water in water-cooled plants. For another, gas reactors are more efficient at generating electricity than water-cooled ones, because they run much hotter.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...now-next#/next

How It Works

A pebble-bed reactor is made up of about 400,000 pebbles. Heat from the fuel spheres is picked up by helium and can then be used to generate electricity—or to drive industrial processes such as oil refining and desalination.

Blowers move helium gas through the reactor and over the pebbles, where nuclear fission releases large amounts of energy, heating up the helium.
About 5,000 spheres move through the reactor each day, like gum balls through a vending machine. The constant circulation means no refueling interruptions.
If a pebble taken from the bottom can produce more power, it goes back in the top. If it’s spent, it’s stored as waste, and a new pebble is added.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/20...w-next#/next/1

Sounds promising? I think so

**Visna** · October 31, 2011, 07:19 AM

Originally Posted by IZob

I was gona place this in the PM thread, but I didnt think it was 'political' enough? I don't know, you decided.

But it seems sciency enough.

<3
Visna

**Condottiere 40K** · October 31, 2011, 08:52 AM

You might want to hurry while it's still in stock.

**Sphere** · October 31, 2011, 11:38 AM

I'm not 100% up to speed on this type of reactor, but I thought the key advantage was the ability to use a less enriched uranium which cannot physically produce a runaway "meltdown" reaction even if the coolant stops flowing. As alluded to in the OP, you have to keep rotating the spheres to maintain the reaction. The Helium has little to due with the safety of the system IIRC.

**Ascarona** · October 31, 2011, 11:53 AM

Sounds nice, but aren't we going to run out of Helium soon?

**IZob** · October 31, 2011, 10:41 PM

Couldnt watch the video Condott.

Sounds nice, but aren't we going to run out of Helium soon?

Well I googled this:

Where do they get helium from and how much is left?

I mean on the earth, lots in the sun but how do you get it?

It's produced from radioactive decay in the Earth, mainly uranium and thorium. This is an extremely slow process and the helium we are using has been produced over the several billion years the Earth has existed. Mainly it is extracted from oil wells, so with a decline in production of oil will come a decline in production of helium.

I'm not sure anyone knows how much total is left in the crust, probably a lot. But only a small fraction of that total is readily available.
Source(s): http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/10754.aspx

**Rhaegar1** · November 04, 2011, 02:41 PM

Aaah the pebble bed reactor. There is definitely a good chance that this reactor will be a contender for Nuclear power plants of the future. But keep in mind that the whole idea of it is not new I believe one of them ran for quit some time in Germany, after which the design was sold to some South African company that went broke and sold it further along to (you can guess it allready) the Chinese.

The main problem in the past has not been the use of helium or safety concerns but the cost of making these little pebbles with fuel in it simply was to high. It wouldn't be a problem if you would have 10 of these plants running, then you could easily build a small plant dedicated for mass production of these pebbles and so pushing the costs down. But nobody is gonna build 10 of these relatively unproven plants and one plant is due to the production costs of the pebbles right now not competitive with other nuclear plant designs.

The only way I see this kind of plants getting used in large quantities is if some high ranking Chinese communist Party hotshot/scientist decides tomorrow that this is the way to go and just starts building them.

The helium of course could be a problem but remember that the helium used in a plant like this is 100% recyclable because the first loop will be completely closed anyway so you won't be using that much helium.