Mayor Lormar’s Random Madness

And if you’re confused as to who the hell Woden is, check here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woden

Well… No news on the previous item… but while we’re waiting, and I’m in a speculative mood…

I can tell you the answer to the world’s energy problems in three words… and it’s not wind, solar, drill for more oil, or even Hydrogen Fuel Cell… it’s pebble bed reactor.

‘The PBMR [Pebble Bed Modular Reactor] is safer, cleaner, smaller and more affordable than conventional nuclear power plants. In fact, proponents insist that the reactor’s design features make it “meltdown-proof” and “walk-away safe.” It is physically impossible for it to suffer the kind of accident at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl.’

Why? The Pebble Bed Reactor, unlike those we know today that are water cooled, do not rely on steam, control rods, or fuel rods… but instead use Helium to cool the reactor and are fueled by “pebbles” which are actually graphite balls about the size of a pool ball which contain a quantity of U-235 in the center which are constantly cycled through the reactor. Damaged or depleted balls are automatically discarded into drums and due to the nature of the fuel source can be categorized as low-grade nuclear waste, which is much easier to store & dispose of. Plus because of the carbon design of the fuel, by-products are absorbed by the carbon and due to the level of technology required to deconstruct them, the possibility of the spent (or unspent) material being extracted for nuclear proliferation or covert use is impractical.

The significance of Helium as the cooling medium is a two fold item. Helium doesn’t catestrophically expand when it is heated, and if it does escape it goes to the stratosphere rather than settling back to earth like steam. As for it being ‘cheap’ well, it only requires one person and one computer to operate the entire system and you can essentially add an unlimited number of modular reactors to increase capacity when needed…. ‘Walk Away Safe’ means that you can literally shut off the cooling system and walk away from the reactor, and it will cool itself off rather than melting down.

Nuclear power has really gotten a bad rap in past years, but this really promises to be the source of the future until we can (if ever) perfect cold fusion.

Check these two stories for more info… Let me know your thoughts.

http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html

http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2003/11/61088

Illustration by Kenn Brown and Chris Wren

Filed under: Science & Technology