nuclear-news

Gee Whiz billionaires gambling on new untested Integral Fast Reactors

Virgin Nuclear? Branson asks Obama for reactor help. Sir Richard v Bill Gates? Smart Planet, By Mark Halper | July 23, 2012, Flamboyant British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson has written to President Barack Obama seeking help commercializing an alternative type of nuclear reactor known as an Integral Fast Reactor……

Branson, known for his Virgin brand of media and airline companies, isn’t the only well-known billionaire advocating IFRs, also known as “fast neutron reactors,” “fast reactors,” and sometimes as “breeder reactors.” Microsoft founder Bill Gates is developing a type of fast
reactor known as a traveling wave reactor, through his startup company TerraPower.

Branson told me he has not invested money in an IFR or IFR company –
unlike Gates, who is a primary shareholder in TerraPower. One might
assume, however, that Branson would invest, should U.S. policy shape
up favorably. That could set up the intriguing prospect of Branson
versus Gates in the nuclear business (or who knows – the two could
even partner)…..
The letter, which I have seen, was written on Branson Necker Island
stationary. Necker Island is Branson’s 74-acre patch in the Caribbean,
a favorite hangout of his when he’s not racing hot air balloons or
performing other publicity stunts, like jumping off the roof of a Las
Vegas hotel or driving across the English Channel in an amphibious
car.
It was cosigned by two other individuals: NASA Goddard Institute head
and Columbia University adjunct professor James Hansen, a renowned
campaigner against man made climate change; and by Eric Loewen, who is
the president of the American Nuclear Society and also the chief
engineer on General Electric Hitachi’s IFR, called  PRISM. Loewen
signed the letter as the president of the ANS…..
Like with other hopeful alternative nuclear technologies such as
thorium, the idea for IFRs has been around for decades. The U.S. ran a
test IFR in Idaho from 1964 through 1994 called the Experimental
Breeder Reactor II (after operating is predecessor EBR in the 1950s).
EBR II is the basis for GE-Hitachi’s PRISM.

Critics say that IFRs are difficult to build, and question their
safety. Japan’s Monju IFR suffered a leak and fire in 1995, and
incurred another accident in 2010 when a fuel replacement device fell
into the reactor. It is currently shut….
Branson and Gates might expect to compete against yet another familiar
billionaire in the nuclear business. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has
invested in General Fusion, a Burnaby, Canada company that hopes to
commercialize a nuclear fusion machine.

July 24, 2012 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | 2 WORLD, business and costs