So how would this actually work for consumers? At mass production, how much would one backyard unit cost and what would the maintenance look like? I think an updated video once they are ready would be a great follow up video.
@@astranisspace hahaha TECHNICALLY the lobby, but yes, had to do it at the shop. If you look carefully you can actually see the morning sun rise from the beginning to the end of the video.
The demonstration here adds a lot to the discussion about small-scale reactors. There’s a lot to admire in designing systems that prioritize inherent safety, definitely a model worth keeping an eye on as nuclear energy continues to evolve!
There are many ways to split an atom. This is one of them and indeed I would say a good bet for the cheap factory made reactor. Sodium cooled fast reactors already exist but the difference is they don't slow down those neutrons (fast) and as such require more fuel in the reactor to stay operational. Triga fuel lets you make the reactor smaller and safer. The biggest problem with those however is usually the use of liquid sodium which is a problem this reactor shares. The problem is mostly because sodium is flowing through pipes and any kind of leak of liquid sodium from a pipe is a huge danger and a hassle to fix. Terra Power has a solution to this problem which I hope these guys replicate. The solution is to simply not have the sodium in any pipes. All of the sodium sits in the big bucket built into the ground along with the reactor and the heat exchanger (heat exchange to solar salt because you don't want any leaks bewteen sodium and water) You can still circulate the sodium around but there is nowhere for it to leak other than the big hole in the ground where it's already supposed to be. Secondary benefit is that solar salt is very cheap and a good way to store thermal energy so you can have your power plant load following while still running the reactor itself at max power.
@@1stPrinciplesFM Indeed, Terra Power is the one from Bill Gates. And Solar Salt is just a type of salt typically used for storing heat at high temperatures because it's compatible with water (unlike most other salts), it's 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3. It's named solar salt because it is used as the target for heating in the mirror based solar power plants where large arrays of mirrors concentrate on one spot to heat up the solar salt which can then be used all day and all night to generate power.
@@1stPrinciplesFM Molten salt reactors are indeed great and I would want to see an episode. I suggest an interview with the CEO of Copenhagen Atomics for that. The use of Solar Salt is not really related to molten salt reactors that much, Terra Power uses it because it's compatible with both the liquid sodium and water so it can heat exchange to both with minimal danger.
So the thought is to make smaller.modular reactors by using a molten metal heat exchange with the reactor core. I can see this being helpful because to create steam plasma everything has to be under high pressure and there needs to be a containment vessel. Sodium, though, is an extremely reactive metal and will need to be contained using some very exotic alloys. That is the factor to overcome. Maybe use a salt in the heat exchange instead?
Way way less, 100 years ago, electricity was still super new. Only 40% of Americans had electrified homes. Definitely demand and supply rise together! Average today is like 10 megawatt hours per year per house
It feels ironic that he calls out oil and gas specifically because we're going to run out of it when we're also going to run out of uranium. Currently we're already running a global uranium deficit of a few thousand tons a year. If we had a ubiquitous reactor, the deficit would only explode. I'm not defending oil and gas and I'm not saying we shouldn't use nuclear energy. But I'm definitely saying that it's not the solution people like this want it to be. We don't have enough fuel for this to really be the answer. Thorium reactors are promising but those have yet to be realized
Texas announces plan for advanced nuclear reactors across the state worth over $50 billion. Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Public Utility Commission of Texas have identified 61 possible sites across the state for new nuclear reactors. A recently-released state report on Advanced Nuclear Energy is hoping to bring in over $50 billion in new economic output to Texas, along with $27 billion in income for Texas workers.
Uranium zirconium hydride sounds ok till it reacts with water. It is UH3TiH4.. 7 hydrogen plus 2 reactive metals. It might have a negative coefficient but would get very unstable with burnup decay. 😮
I been wondering about this. How does burnup will affect the stability of this fuel? you will have plenty of fission products as well as transmutation products that might make the hydride far less stable, possibly releasing the hydrogen and causing a serious build up of pressure within the fuel element also it will produce deuterium and tritium which they can change the reactivity of the reactor due them being better moderators than protium. Tho I guess it also could mean tritium production might be a business for this kind of reactors.
Didn't the Soviets have something like this tiny remote nuclear power ? Can't remember where I heard about them but they where used in the sixties and some hikers found one and died. Them a team had to come in spending only a minute oe two at a time to deal with it.
I thought sodium metal reactors were thrown out 50 years ago. Simi valley California rocketdyne my backyard is the location of the first sodium reactor melt down and it was due to the nature of the sodium metal it oxidizes extremely easy and those oxides built up on in the cooling chanel's creating hot spots in the reactor making weird readings so they kept pushing and testing until it was too late and it melt down causing a clean up effort that is still ongoing. So I wonder how they solved or are going to solve that issue of oxide build up pretty cool though none the less I want one lol
That reactor can not be melted down because it is designed to work that way. Its a neutron source ? Perhaps Aalo can pivot some elements to power production, but "betting" on that is basically just that - a bet, the Bayesian priors are not in their favour, because smaller reactors need even HIGHER temps than larger ones to maintain efficiency due to thermodynamics, and this fuel is inherently low temp, regardless of the heat transfer fluid.
How tf does this video not have more views. This is crazy content for 500 views
PLEASE, ALGORITHM, LISTEN TO CHEMAN9907
@ that’s what I’m saying. I was shocked when I saw your sub count after watching this
Compliance!!!, awesome Video. thx 4 uploading.
Absolutely insane! thanks for making this.
So how would this actually work for consumers? At mass production, how much would one backyard unit cost and what would the maintenance look like? I think an updated video once they are ready would be a great follow up video.
@@MarcGayle I'll definitely go back! Step one is getting one reactor to generate power continuously - until that works, impossible to say. :)
Hydrolysis for hydrogen and oxygen recovery!
Astranis office spotted 👀
@@astranisspace hahaha TECHNICALLY the lobby, but yes, had to do it at the shop. If you look carefully you can actually see the morning sun rise from the beginning to the end of the video.
THIS VIDEO IS SICK!!!!
so fire first ad i’ve ever willingly clicked in my life
@@Satwix 🫡
The demonstration here adds a lot to the discussion about small-scale reactors. There’s a lot to admire in designing systems that prioritize inherent safety, definitely a model worth keeping an eye on as nuclear energy continues to evolve!
@@AdvantestInc safety by chemistry > safety by engineered system... more reliable and less expensive!
There are many ways to split an atom. This is one of them and indeed I would say a good bet for the cheap factory made reactor.
Sodium cooled fast reactors already exist but the difference is they don't slow down those neutrons (fast) and as such require more fuel in the reactor to stay operational. Triga fuel lets you make the reactor smaller and safer. The biggest problem with those however is usually the use of liquid sodium which is a problem this reactor shares. The problem is mostly because sodium is flowing through pipes and any kind of leak of liquid sodium from a pipe is a huge danger and a hassle to fix.
Terra Power has a solution to this problem which I hope these guys replicate. The solution is to simply not have the sodium in any pipes. All of the sodium sits in the big bucket built into the ground along with the reactor and the heat exchanger (heat exchange to solar salt because you don't want any leaks bewteen sodium and water) You can still circulate the sodium around but there is nowhere for it to leak other than the big hole in the ground where it's already supposed to be.
Secondary benefit is that solar salt is very cheap and a good way to store thermal energy so you can have your power plant load following while still running the reactor itself at max power.
@@MrRolnicek what is solar salt? I have heard of TerraPower, that's the Bill Gates one, right?
@@1stPrinciplesFM Indeed, Terra Power is the one from Bill Gates. And Solar Salt is just a type of salt typically used for storing heat at high temperatures because it's compatible with water (unlike most other salts), it's 60% NaNO3 and 40% KNO3. It's named solar salt because it is used as the target for heating in the mirror based solar power plants where large arrays of mirrors concentrate on one spot to heat up the solar salt which can then be used all day and all night to generate power.
@ very cool, thank you! I know that "molten salt" reactors exist but don't know much about them. Maybe a cool future episode!
@@1stPrinciplesFM Molten salt reactors are indeed great and I would want to see an episode. I suggest an interview with the CEO of Copenhagen Atomics for that.
The use of Solar Salt is not really related to molten salt reactors that much, Terra Power uses it because it's compatible with both the liquid sodium and water so it can heat exchange to both with minimal danger.
@@MrRolnicek Would love to see a video with the CEO of Copenhagen Atomics.
So the thought is to make smaller.modular reactors by using a molten metal heat exchange with the reactor core. I can see this being helpful because to create steam plasma everything has to be under high pressure and there needs to be a containment vessel. Sodium, though, is an extremely reactive metal and will need to be contained using some very exotic alloys. That is the factor to overcome. Maybe use a salt in the heat exchange instead?
What would happen if you power down the reactor for maintenance? Would the liquid sodium turn into solid sodium?
The UT reactor is just a stones throw away from me. Please be careful 😉
Haha Dr Bill wouldn't have let me mess anything up
This is so cool
How much total energy did people require 100 years ago to power their entire life? Way less right? Is that number still increasing?
Way way less, 100 years ago, electricity was still super new. Only 40% of Americans had electrified homes.
Definitely demand and supply rise together! Average today is like 10 megawatt hours per year per house
It feels ironic that he calls out oil and gas specifically because we're going to run out of it when we're also going to run out of uranium. Currently we're already running a global uranium deficit of a few thousand tons a year. If we had a ubiquitous reactor, the deficit would only explode. I'm not defending oil and gas and I'm not saying we shouldn't use nuclear energy. But I'm definitely saying that it's not the solution people like this want it to be. We don't have enough fuel for this to really be the answer. Thorium reactors are promising but those have yet to be realized
Texas announces plan for advanced nuclear reactors across the state worth over $50 billion.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and the Public Utility Commission of Texas have identified 61 possible sites across the state for new nuclear reactors.
A recently-released state report on Advanced Nuclear Energy is hoping to bring in over $50 billion in new economic output to Texas, along with $27 billion in income for Texas workers.
Can you investigate wind turbines next? Are they killing the whales or not???
@@evankeil5055 hmmmmm not sure there are any offshore wind startups but it's a cool thing to check out
Uranium zirconium hydride sounds ok till it reacts with water. It is UH3TiH4.. 7 hydrogen plus 2 reactive metals. It might have a negative coefficient but would get very unstable with burnup decay. 😮
I'm confused, what is that? UZrH + H2O, where does the titanium come from?
I been wondering about this. How does burnup will affect the stability of this fuel? you will have plenty of fission products as well as transmutation products that might make the hydride far less stable, possibly releasing the hydrogen and causing a serious build up of pressure within the fuel element also it will produce deuterium and tritium which they can change the reactivity of the reactor due them being better moderators than protium. Tho I guess it also could mean tritium production might be a business for this kind of reactors.
Ya surrounding it with sodium good idea. Throw some pure sodium in a chlorinated pool for fun.
How many reactors would we need to power the US?
@@evankeil5055 at least 7
Didn't the Soviets have something like this tiny remote nuclear power ? Can't remember where I heard about them but they where used in the sixties and some hikers found one and died. Them a team had to come in spending only a minute oe two at a time to deal with it.
I thought sodium metal reactors were thrown out 50 years ago. Simi valley California rocketdyne my backyard is the location of the first sodium reactor melt down and it was due to the nature of the sodium metal it oxidizes extremely easy and those oxides built up on in the cooling chanel's creating hot spots in the reactor making weird readings so they kept pushing and testing until it was too late and it melt down causing a clean up effort that is still ongoing. So I wonder how they solved or are going to solve that issue of oxide build up pretty cool though none the less I want one lol
I could do better at making it go boom
@@Goatis267 plz don't prove it
That reactor can not be melted down because it is designed to work that way. Its a neutron source ? Perhaps Aalo can pivot some elements to power production, but "betting" on that is basically just that - a bet, the Bayesian priors are not in their favour, because smaller reactors need even HIGHER temps than larger ones to maintain efficiency due to thermodynamics, and this fuel is inherently low temp, regardless of the heat transfer fluid.