AWARD YEAR
2017
CATEGORY
Community
GOALS
Affordable & Clean Energy
KEYWORDS
Nuclear waste, Thorium fuel cycle, modular design
COUNTRY
Denmark
DESIGNED BY
Seaborg Technologies
WEBSITE
http://seaborg.co
The Seaborg Wasteburner
Bridge between conventional nuclear reactors, and a solution based on the thorium fuel cycle.
The Wasteburner is constructed to be a self sufficient unit, that can operate with little human oversight. The modular design allows for easy transport, quick replacement of various components, and ease of maintenance.
By harnessing the ability to use spent nuclear fuel and even decommissioned nuclear weapons, the Wasteburner uses molten lithium salt in conjunction with uranium fuel to power the thorium fuel cycle. The thorium fuel cycle turns thorium into the uranium isotope 233. This isotope activates the thorium fuel cycle.
The design of the reactor will dictate the point, where a thorium fuel cycle can operate without uranium as a catalyst. The commercial version of the Wasteburner is expected to be able to run an independent closed thorium cycle after approximately 30 years of operations. The long term goal is to design reactors, that will run exclusively on thorium, thus enabling the usage of the abundance of thorium.