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John Little
08-Dec-11, 07:37
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/bill-gates-and-china-may-build-nuclear-reactor-6273422.html?fb_action_ids=2386385299042%2C2387299 690383%2C10150403364926114%2C2628017535648%2C10150 404291701114&fb_action_types=news.reads&fb_ref=U-L7rTvxnh31uw4OFMIvtUZb-CFCONX01FRS-33qqjXXX%2CU-L7rTvxnh31uw4OFMIvtUZb-CFCONX01FRS-2j6gkXXX%2CU-_SJnVIiIfxxD4EWXI__HJD-CFCONX01FRS-33jxeXXX&fb_source=other_multiline#access_token=AAADWQ6323I oBAPxrbSFREJgwuVghrpBQfqZCfrf6iCznCYYUsZC7vCRsi9p0 IBXkthZCeY8cepf0siFiwD8ZBfGcgRLVLUGXtP6NGI96eQZDZD&expires_in=5165



"Computing billionaire Bill Gates has confirmed he is discussing developing a new and safer kind of nuclear reactor with China.
"The idea is to be very low cost, very safe and generate very little waste," said the Microsoft co-founder in Peking.

Mr Gates has largely funded a US company, TerraPower, that is developing a reactor that can run on depleted uranium."TerraPower is having very good discussions with various people in the Chinese government," he said, cautioning that they were at an early stage.He said as much as a billion dollars will be put into research and development over the next five years.TerraPower says its "travelling wave reactor" would run for decades on depleted uranium and produce significantly smaller amounts of nuclear waste than conventional reactors."All these new designs are going to be incredibly safe," Mr Gates said. "They require no human action to remain safe at all times."He said they also benefit from an ability to simulate earthquake and tidal wave conditions. "It takes safety to a new level," he said.Since leaving Microsoft, Mr Gates has concentrated on philanthropy and advocating on public health, education and clean energy issues.He was in China to talk about a joint project between China and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to support innovative research and development to help alleviate poverty."China has a lot to contribute because it's solved many of the problems of poverty, not all of them but a lot of them, itself, and many Asian, south Asian and African countries are well behind, whether it's agriculture or health," he said."


I don't suppose Mr Salmond would be interested though...

ducati
08-Dec-11, 10:05
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8ePdFHj69g4afIaMiaF46XGg56ISL_ 6ykf34-HPStFOU_vCXB

Phill
08-Dec-11, 10:31
http://t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcR8ePdFHj69g4afIaMiaF46XGg56ISL_ 6ykf34-HPStFOU_vCXB
Was that the reactor you built in yer shed?
Mine went like that too, think I over cooked it when I cut the fuel rods in half to get them in, maybe I should have just used half at a time!

Phill
08-Dec-11, 10:33
Sounds like Mr Gates may be onto something. Just as long as it's far more stable than some of his Windies platforms, and it doesn't suffer from the blue screen of death.

ducati
08-Dec-11, 11:49
My main problem was getting fire-lighters to work in the vacuum I created for the Nuclear Furnace.

Rheghead
08-Dec-11, 13:58
Why should Bill Gates bother? Nuclear is totally safe by all pro-nuclear accounts anyway.

theone
08-Dec-11, 14:18
I'm not sure if this is the same thing, but several years ago there was a concept of "portable" nuclear reactors being used in 3rd world and poorer nations.

The basic idea was that a US company would build the plant, put it on a barge and float it to wherever it was to be used. The plant would then be removed and refuelled as required back in the US.

Neil Howie
08-Dec-11, 23:37
Unfortunately Terrapower seems to remind me of Terrahawks

Anyway, Wired coverage of Bill Gates at energy conference in May, link and quote

‘Cute’ Tech Won’t Solve Planet’s Energy Woes
(http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/bill-gates-energy-tech/)


During the discussion, Gates was especially enthusiastic about one nuclear energy company called TerraPower (http://www.terrapower.com/), in which he’s investing undisclosed millions. By using far less-toxic depleted uranium as fuel (instead of the enriched type), the on-paper reactors should produce one-one-thousandth of typical radioactive waste.
“The new nuclear design … is quite amazing,” Gates said. “Basically no human should ever be required to do anything.”
Despite Japan’s recent earthquake-induced nuclear disaster, Gates was resolute about the overall environmental safety of nuclear reactors. He said such high-profile disasters have shaken public support, and that nuclear waste disposal is a relatively small problem in the scheme of things (even if nuclear reactors powered the entire U.S., he said). Rather, it’s the security of nuclear materials and cost that pose problems.
“The good news about nuclear is that there has hardly been any innovation. The room to do things differently is quite dramatic,” he said.

secrets in symmetry
08-Dec-11, 23:46
Unfortunately Terrapower seems to remind me of Terrahawks

Anyway, Wired coverage of Bill Gates at energy conference in May, link and quote

‘Cute’ Tech Won’t Solve Planet’s Energy Woes (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2011/05/bill-gates-energy-tech/)


During the discussion, Gates was especially enthusiastic about one nuclear energy company called TerraPower (http://www.terrapower.com/), in which he’s investing undisclosed millions. By using far less-toxic depleted uranium as fuel (instead of the enriched type), the on-paper reactors should produce one-one-thousandth of typical radioactive waste.
“The new nuclear design … is quite amazing,” Gates said. “Basically no human should ever be required to do anything.”
Despite Japan’s recent earthquake-induced nuclear disaster, Gates was resolute about the overall environmental safety of nuclear reactors. He said such high-profile disasters have shaken public support, and that nuclear waste disposal is a relatively small problem in the scheme of things (even if nuclear reactors powered the entire U.S., he said). Rather, it’s the security of nuclear materials and cost that pose problems.
“The good news about nuclear is that there has hardly been any innovation. The room to do things differently is quite dramatic,” he said.I'm lmao at your Terrahawks comment - because that's also the image I have in my mind!

I tried to find out a bit more about the Traveling Wave Reactor concept this morning, but I didn't have much joy. The Wikipedia page is almost content free - it's probably written by one of the Terrahawks, or by a Windows technical writer - and there's not much detail to be found elsewhere. The basic idea doesn't sound insane though.

Now I learn from Bill Gates that depleted uranium is far less toxic than enriched uranium. It may be less fissile, but it's not less toxic!