Speaker
Rolland Johnson
(Muons, Inc.)
Description
Operation of high-power SRF particle accelerators at two US national laboratories allows us to consider a less-expensive nuclear reactor that operates without the need for a critical core, fuel enrichment, or reprocessing. A multipurpose reactor design that takes advantage of this new accelerator capability includes an internal spallation neutron target and high-temperature molten-salt fuel with continuous purging of volatile radioactive fission products. The reactor contains less than a critical mass and almost a million times fewer volatile radioactive fission products than conventional reactors like those at Fukushima. We describe GEMSTAR , a reactor that without redesign will burn spent nuclear fuel, natural uranium, thorium, or surplus weapons material. A first application is to burn 34 tonnes of excess weapons grade plutonium as an important step in nuclear disarmament under the 2000 Plutonium Management and Disposition Agreement **. The process heat generated by this W-Pu can be used for the Fischer-Tropsch conversion of natural gas and renewable carbon into 42 billion gallons of low-CO2-footprint, drop-in, synthetic diesel fuel for the DOD.
Primary authors
Prof.
Mary Anne Cummings
(Muons, Inc.)
Rolland Johnson
(Muons, Inc.)
Dr
Thomas Roberts
(Muons, Inc.)
