Wyoming might be the home of the first sodium cooled nuclear plant in the U.S.

[OVERKILL]

I have an issue, as I am sure you can imagine, when people tout anything as being "foolproof" or "unable to fail" and so on. In that world, it is a dangerous claim to make.

Yeah, for sure. The idea is that unlike an LWR/HWR, which requires the insertion of shutdown/control rods or the injection of gadolinium nitrate to kill a critical core in the event of an incident that could result in a power excursion or fuel melt event, no such requirement should exist for an FBR, since it is self-regulating (doesn't have a moderator or control rods) and in the absence of coolant, reactivity naturally decreases and the fuel, designed to operate at the maximum temperature the unit is capable of, would not be at risk of melting.

At least that's my understanding of it. It's a pretty "diverse" subject because there are so many different designs and not all of them are sodium cooled, fuelled the same way, or regulated the same way. You can get a sense of that from the WNA link I provided earlier, which provides summaries of most of the designs.

I suppose you work in this field?

Not directly? lol. I'm "involved" in the field, due to an advocacy organization I was involved in founding and have spent, and spend, a considerable amount of time researching it.

 

[alarmguy]

There isn't any requirement for plants to do anything permanent with spent fuel waste, so no one does anything other than accumulate it at the plant where it was produced.

It's an interesting subject but the blame falls on the federal government who long promised these sites a depository and they built one for 100 billion dollars only to be never used, so far.
There is a really good documentary on the subject produced some years ago, wish I could remember the name. Filmed at the power plants, operators frustrated that they care being forced to keep the waste onsite because of broken promises by the Feds. This is a sample of many.

 

[Reloader59]

I'll be awaiting the explosion in a couple years. More of Bill Gates population reduction plan

 

[alarmguy]

This one is what I was looking for mentioned above, inside the storage facility
BTW - Finland is way ahead of us and the world. (you can do your own search as I dont want to tie up the thread)

 

[loneryder]

fingers crossed that it's successful and cost overruns are at the minimum.

Well if the govt is not involved, shouldn't be too many cost over runs.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

This one is what I was looking for mentioned above, inside the storage facility
BTW - Finland is way ahead of us and the world. (you can do your own search as I dont want to tie up the thread)

NIMBY is always an issue. Perhaps one day that'll be overcome and the economics of reprocessing will become viable. Reprocessing would reduce the amount of space requires for storage.

Why the US doesn't recycle spent nuclear fuel

Experts say low uranium prices, the high cost of recycling, and fears of proliferation have all factored into the decision.

www.projectoptimist.us

 

[alarmguy]

NIMBY is always an issue. Perhaps one day that'll be overcome and the economics of reprocessing will become viable. Reprocessing would reduce the amount of space requires for storage.

Why the US doesn't recycle spent nuclear fuel

Experts say low uranium prices, the high cost of recycling, and fears of proliferation have all factored into the decision.

www.projectoptimist.us

Agree... except in Finland who is boatloads at the forefront. I admire that pioneering spirit of the people there.
I know that would never happen here, not anymore.

 

[Yah-Tah-Hey]

..
Just the mention of Bill Gates makes about half the population catatonic with terror.
..

Who is Bill Gates?