Nuclear Dreams: More on Pebble Beds

This is a link to QandO discussing some news out of China on the PBMR. The original article is from Newsweek.

Nuclear scientist Chang Wei pointed at the model, which looked like a basement furnace split down the middle, and explained how the design - —including 27,000 balls of uranium wrapped in layers of super-strong silicon carbide, ceramic material and graphite—makes it physically impossible for the reactor to do anything but shut down if something goes wrong; the dangerous uranium would be trapped inside the spheres, which have a melting point much higher than the temperature inside the reactor could ever reach.

Dangerous Uranium. You know, the Uranium isn't the thing that is really dangerous. It's the other nuclear byproducts that are really dangerous. But lets not nitpick.

"So let me see if I can describe it in Texas English," said Snead, 76, an entrepreneur who hopes to build a nuclear power plant on 55 acres in Texas. "There's no way it can explode or melt?"

Chang nodded in the affirmative. She went on to explain how the design requires only a fraction of the control-room staff a more conventional reactor would need. Snead, apparently impressed, exclaimed that this newfangled Chinese technology may be the key to assuaging the nuclear fears of Americans. He wants to go back and sell the idea to Texas A&M University or another school willing to back a research center. "I think the Americans will be buying nuclear plants from China within five years," he said.

Umm. "Newfangled?" And it's not Chinese technology. It was originally developed in Germany and worked on all over the place, including in the US. Well, at least the article corrects Snead.

From the article it does sound like China is moving fairly aggressively on the technology. They'll probably reach oil independence long before we in the US do. Too bad we are held back by the fear mongers who consistently screech about the evils of nuclear power.