Kirk Sorensen (of Flibe Energy) offers “the industrial perspective” on how the upcoming “nuclear retirement retirement cliff” of today’s plants, combined with large numbers of coal plants facing retirement, create opportunity for the Liquid-Fueled Thorium Reactor.
Department of Energy’s “Nuclear Energy Research and Development Roadmap” states “it is ultimately industry’s decision which commercial technologies will be deployed. The federal role falls more squarely in the realm of R&D.”
Kirk notes that informal talks with NRC personnel, they have a great deal of optimism regarding regulation of LFTR thanks to MSR’s inherent safety features. “The NRC is happy to look at anything, so long as you pay their billing rates… sometimes being different isn’t all bad if you can help them achieve a higher level of safety.”
Flibe Energy is currently conducting a year-long feasibility study and that should be completed by the end of this year (2014).
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Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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