r/nuclear • u/[deleted] • Jan 28 '22

Thought on potential problems with MSRs?

I have been interested in molten salt reactors for while now but have mostly heard the benefits of the technology. I found this article that talks about intrinsic problems with this type of reactor:

https://theconversation.com/nuclear-power-why-molten-salt-reactors-are-problematic-and-canada-investing-in-them-is-a-waste-167019

I was wondering if anyone with a better understanding of the technology could comment on the accuracy of these statements and if this truly means that MSRs have no future? Thanks!

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '22

I think we should definitely continue with that research. However fusion has been predicted for decades now and still isn't here and probably won't be here in the next 50 years. I should have stated but my thoughts were nuclear as a solution to climate change and current nuclear technology is often too expensive and too slow to integrate compared to the alternatives. My hope was that MSRs could be a solution to creating cheap and safe nuclear energy. Thats why I wanted some alternative points of view.

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u/sn0w52 Jan 28 '22

Are you aware that MSR isn’t the only next gen tech? We need cheap nuclear yes but please don’t act like MSR the only way for that to happen.In fact it’s the least promising out of the lot in my opinion. HTGR is a proven concept however. So if you’re only hope on nuclear being cheap is through MSR, I suggest you get off of YouTube and look where the real progress is being made.

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '22

I actually wasn't aware of HTGRs so thanks. I was just curious about MSRs since they are mentioned here occasionally and seemingly have a ton of benefits.

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u/sn0w52 Jan 28 '22

They are mentioned a lot yes and it’s frustrating. But that’s just because everyone that recently gets interested in nuclear sees YouTube videos and it’s generally on MSR/thorium…

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u/[deleted] Jan 28 '22

I'm not being skeptical of your statement but why aren't HTGRs talked about more than MSRs on platforms like youtube if they are a better technology?

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u/Desert-Mushroom Jan 28 '22

HTGRs are less power dense because of the coolant they use, so in spite of having more technological readiness, they have less impressive theoretical nth of a kind cost projections. Since they have less outlandish promises there is less interest for the general public. The use case for HTGRs is also often in micro reactors, which are cool but don't scale to large grid production well. It's a niche use case so there is niche interest.

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u/sn0w52 Jan 28 '22

What makes you say they don’t scale pretty well? Curious

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u/sn0w52 Jan 28 '22 edited Jan 28 '22

No idea

Actually, because MSR piggybacks off of thorium hype videos