Molten-Salt Depleted-Uranium Reactor

TL;DR

The paper proposes a novel Molten-Salt Depleted-Uranium Reactor that offers a safe, stable, and long-term nuclear energy solution, addressing critical safety issues and resource limitations of traditional reactors.

Contribution

It introduces a practical design for a molten-salt reactor using depleted uranium that inherently avoids prompt criticality and enhances safety and resource efficiency.

Findings

Reactor operates with negative feedback and no prompt criticality.

Achieves high burnup of depleted uranium in a safe, stable manner.

Provides a long-term, sustainable energy source for humanity.

Abstract

The supercritical, reactor core melting and nuclear fuel leaking accidents have troubled fission reactors for decades, and greatly limit their extensive applications. Now these troubles are still open. Here we first show a possible perfect reactor, Molten-Salt Depleted-Uranium Reactor which is no above accident trouble. We found this reactor could be realized in practical applications in terms of all of the scientific principle, principle of operation, technology, and engineering. Our results demonstrate how these reactors can possess and realize extraordinary excellent characteristics, no prompt critical, long-term safe and stable operation with negative feedback, closed uranium-plutonium cycle chain within the vessel, normal operation only with depleted-uranium, and depleted-uranium high burnup in reality, to realize with fission nuclear energy sufficiently satisfying humanity long-term energy resource needs, as well as thoroughly solve the challenges of nuclear criticality safety, uranium resource insufficiency and low-carbon development. They could provide safe, cheap, abundant, and clean energy resource and electric power lasting thousands years for humanity.