There may be a viable nuclear power solution

In a previous post, the problem of relicensing existing nuclear reactors. Yet, it’s critical that we move to carbon dioxide free ways of generating electricity. The fact is that while there is political debate about global warming, the science is quite clear that the planet is heating up and that it’s highly correlated with increasing C02 in the atmosphere.

There is an interesting possibility, though. Bill Gates has backed a firm called TerraPower, and they have developed an interesting idea for an alternative to today’s reactors. Check out the video below.

The advantages of a traveling wave reactor technology are

1. They are less expensive to build and run.
2. The use existing waste material from the current generation of operating reactors.
3. The avoid the costly and dangers need to replace fuel.
4. They can be built to run for 100 years on one fueling.

Keep in mind that at this moment, they are elaborate models on supercomputers. Now the task is to take them from the drawing board to a working prototype.

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