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  • Well, I have a big announcement to make today,

  • and I'm really excited about this.

  • And this may be a little bit of a surprise

  • to many of you who know my research

  • and what I've done well.

  • I've really tried to solve some big problems:

  • counterterrorism, nuclear terrorism,

  • and health care and diagnosing and treating cancer,

  • but I started thinking about all these problems,

  • and I realized that the really biggest problem we face,

  • what all these other problems come down to,

  • is energy, is electricity, the flow of electrons.

  • And I decided that I was going to set out

  • to try to solve this problem.

  • And this probably is not what you're expecting.

  • You're probably expecting me to come up here

  • and talk about fusion,

  • because that's what I've done most of my life.

  • But this is actually a talk about, okay --

  • (Laughter) —

  • but this is actually a talk about fission.

  • It's about perfecting something old,

  • and bringing something old into the 21st century.

  • Let's talk a little bit about how nuclear fission works.

  • In a nuclear power plant, you have

  • a big pot of water that's under high pressure,

  • and you have some fuel rods,

  • and these fuel rods are encased in zirconium,

  • and they're little pellets of uranium dioxide fuel,

  • and a fission reaction is controlled and maintained at a proper level,

  • and that reaction heats up water,

  • the water turns to steam, steam turns the turbine,

  • and you produce electricity from it.

  • This is the same way we've been producing electricity,

  • the steam turbine idea, for 100 years,

  • and nuclear was a really big advancement

  • in a way to heat the water,

  • but you still boil water and that turns to steam and turns the turbine.

  • And I thought, you know, is this the best way to do it?

  • Is fission kind of played out,

  • or is there something left to innovate here?

  • And I realized that I had hit upon something

  • that I think has this huge potential to change the world.

  • And this is what it is.

  • This is a small modular reactor.

  • So it's not as big as the reactor you see in the diagram here.

  • This is between 50 and 100 megawatts.

  • But that's a ton of power.

  • That's between, say at an average use,

  • that's maybe 25,000 to 100,000 homes could run off that.

  • Now the really interesting thing about these reactors

  • is they're built in a factory.

  • So they're modular reactors that are built

  • essentially on an assembly line,

  • and they're trucked anywhere in the world,

  • you plop them down, and they produce electricity.

  • This region right here is the reactor.

  • And this is buried below ground, which is really important.

  • For someone who's done a lot of counterterrorism work,

  • I can't extol to you

  • how great having something buried below the ground is

  • for proliferation and security concerns.

  • And inside this reactor is a molten salt,

  • so anybody who's a fan of thorium,

  • they're going to be really excited about this,

  • because these reactors happen to be really good

  • at breeding and burning the thorium fuel cycle,

  • uranium-233.

  • But I'm not really concerned about the fuel.

  • You can run these off -- they're really hungry,

  • they really like down-blended weapons pits,

  • so that's highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium

  • that's been down-blended.

  • It's made into a grade where it's not usable for a nuclear weapon,

  • but they love this stuff.

  • And we have a lot of it sitting around,

  • because this is a big problem.

  • You know, in the Cold War, we built up this huge arsenal

  • of nuclear weapons, and that was great,

  • and we don't need them anymore,

  • and what are we doing with all the waste, essentially?

  • What are we doing with all the pits of those nuclear weapons?

  • Well, we're securing them, and it would be great

  • if we could burn them, eat them up,

  • and this reactor loves this stuff.

  • So it's a molten salt reactor. It has a core,

  • and it has a heat exchanger from the hot salt,

  • the radioactive salt, to a cold salt which isn't radioactive.

  • It's still thermally hot but it's not radioactive.

  • And then that's a heat exchanger

  • to what makes this design really, really interesting,

  • and that's a heat exchanger to a gas.

  • So going back to what I was saying before about all power

  • being produced -- well, other than photovoltaic --

  • being produced by this boiling of steam and turning a turbine,

  • that's actually not that efficient, and in fact,

  • in a nuclear power plant like this,

  • it's only roughly 30 to 35 percent efficient.

  • That's how much thermal energy the reactor's putting out

  • to how much electricity it's producing.

  • And the reason the efficiencies are so low is these reactors

  • operate at pretty low temperature.

  • They operate anywhere from, you know,

  • maybe 200 to 300 degrees Celsius.

  • And these reactors run at 600 to 700 degrees Celsius,

  • which means the higher the temperature you go to,

  • thermodynamics tells you that you will have higher efficiencies.

  • And this reactor doesn't use water. It uses gas,

  • so supercritical CO2 or helium,

  • and that goes into a turbine,

  • and this is called the Brayton cycle.

  • This is the thermodynamic cycle that produces electricity,

  • and this makes this almost 50 percent efficient,

  • between 45 and 50 percent efficiency.

  • And I'm really excited about this,

  • because it's a very compact core.

  • Molten salt reactors are very compact by nature,

  • but what's also great is you get a lot more electricity out

  • for how much uranium you're fissioning,

  • not to mention the fact that these burn up.

  • Their burn-up is much higher.

  • So for a given amount of fuel you put in the reactor,

  • a lot more of it's being used.

  • And the problem with a traditional nuclear power plant like this

  • is, you've got these rods that are clad in zirconium,

  • and inside them are uranium dioxide fuel pellets.

  • Well, uranium dioxide's a ceramic,

  • and ceramic doesn't like releasing what's inside of it.

  • So you have what's called the xenon pit,

  • and so some of these fission products love neutrons.

  • They love the neutrons that are going on

  • and helping this reaction take place.

  • And they eat them up, which means that, combined with

  • the fact that the cladding doesn't last very long,

  • you can only run one of these reactors

  • for roughly, say, 18 months without refueling it.

  • So these reactors run for 30 years without refueling,

  • which is, in my opinion, very, very amazing,

  • because it means it's a sealed system.

  • No refueling means you can seal them up

  • and they're not going to be a proliferation risk,

  • and they're not going to have

  • either nuclear material or radiological material

  • proliferated from their cores.

  • But let's go back to safety, because everybody

  • after Fukushima had to reassess the safety of nuclear,

  • and one of the things when I set out to design a power reactor

  • was it had to be passively and intrinsically safe,

  • and I'm really excited about this reactor

  • for essentially two reasons.

  • One, it doesn't operate at high pressure.

  • So traditional reactors like a pressurized water reactor

  • or boiling water reactor, they're very, very hot water

  • at very high pressures, and this means, essentially,

  • in the event of an accident, if you had any kind of breach

  • of this stainless steel pressure vessel,

  • the coolant would leave the core.

  • These reactors operate at essentially atmospheric pressure,

  • so there's no inclination for the fission products

  • to leave the reactor in the event of an accident.

  • Also, they operate at high temperatures,

  • and the fuel is molten, so they can't melt down,

  • but in the event that the reactor ever went out of tolerances,

  • or you lost off-site power in the case

  • of something like Fukushima, there's a dump tank.

  • Because your fuel is liquid, and it's combined with your coolant,

  • you could actually just drain the core

  • into what's called a sub-critical setting,

  • basically a tank underneath the reactor

  • that has some neutrons absorbers.

  • And this is really important, because the reaction stops.

  • In this kind of reactor, you can't do that.

  • The fuel, like I said, is ceramic inside zirconium fuel rods,

  • and in the event of an accident in one of these type of reactors,

  • Fukushima and Three Mile Island --

  • looking back at Three Mile Island, we didn't really see this for a while

  • but these zirconium claddings on these fuel rods,

  • what happens is, when they see high pressure water,

  • steam, in an oxidizing environment,

  • they'll actually produce hydrogen,

  • and that hydrogen has this explosive capability

  • to release fission products.

  • So the core of this reactor, since it's not under pressure

  • and it doesn't have this chemical reactivity,

  • means that there's no inclination for the fission products

  • to leave this reactor.

  • So even in the event of an accident,

  • yeah, the reactor may be toast, which is, you know,

  • sorry for the power company,

  • but we're not going to contaminate large quantities of land.

  • So I really think that in the, say,

  • 20 years it's going to take us to get fusion

  • and make fusion a reality,

  • this could be the source of energy

  • that provides carbon-free electricity.

  • Carbon-free electricity.

  • And it's an amazing technology because

  • not only does it combat climate change,

  • but it's an innovation.

  • It's a way to bring power to the developing world,

  • because it's produced in a factory and it's cheap.

  • You can put them anywhere in the world you want to.

  • And maybe something else.

  • As a kid, I was obsessed with space.

  • Well, I was obsessed with nuclear science too, to a point,

  • but before that I was obsessed with space,

  • and I was really excited about, you know,

  • being an astronaut and designing rockets,

  • which was something that was always exciting to me.

  • But I think I get to come back to this,

  • because imagine having a compact reactor in a rocket

  • that produces 50 to 100 megawatts.

  • That is the rocket designer's dream.

  • That's someone who is designing a habitat on another planet's dream.

  • Not only do you have 50 to 100 megawatts

  • to power whatever you want to provide propulsion to get you there,

  • but you have power once you get there.

  • You know, rocket designers who use solar panels

  • or fuel cells, I mean a few watts or kilowatts --

  • wow, that's a lot of power.

  • I mean, now we're talking about 100 megawatts.

  • That's a ton of power.

  • That could power a Martian community.

  • That could power a rocket there.

  • And so I hope that

  • maybe I'll have an opportunity to kind of explore

  • my rocketry passion at the same time that I explore my nuclear passion.

  • And people say, "Oh, well, you've launched this thing,

  • and it's radioactive, into space, and what about accidents?"

  • But we launch plutonium batteries all the time.

  • Everybody was really excited about Curiosity,

  • and that had this big plutonium battery on board

  • that has plutonium-238,

  • which actually has a higher specific activity

  • than the low-enriched uranium fuel of these molten salt reactors,

  • which means that the effects would be negligible,

  • because you launch it cold,

  • and when it gets into space is where you actually activate this reactor.

  • So I'm really excited.

  • I think that I've designed this reactor here

  • that can be an innovative source of energy,

  • provide power for all kinds of neat scientific applications,

  • and I'm really prepared to do this.

  • I graduated high school in May, and --

  • (Laughter) (Applause) —

  • I graduated high school in May,

  • and I decided that I was going to start up a company

  • to commercialize these technologies that I've developed,

  • these revolutionary detectors for scanning cargo containers

  • and these systems to produce medical isotopes,

  • but I want to do this, and I've slowly been building up

  • a team of some of the most incredible people

  • I've ever had the chance to work with,

  • and I'm really prepared to make this a reality.

  • And I think, I think, that looking at the technology,

  • this will be cheaper than or the same price as natural gas,

  • and you don't have to refuel it for 30 years,

  • which is an advantage for the developing world.

  • And I'll just say one more maybe philosophical thing

  • to end with, which is weird for a scientist.

  • But I think there's something really poetic

  • about using nuclear power to propel us to the stars,

  • because the stars are giant fusion reactors.

  • They're giant nuclear cauldrons in the sky.

  • The energy that I'm able to talk to you today,

  • while it was converted to chemical energy in my food,

  • originally came from a nuclear reaction,

  • and so there's something poetic about, in my opinion,

  • perfecting nuclear fission

  • and using it as a future source of innovative energy.

  • So thank you guys.

  • (Applause)

Well, I have a big announcement to make today,

Subtitles and vocabulary

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B1 TED reactor nuclear fission fuel power

【TED】Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors (Taylor Wilson: My radical plan for small nuclear fission reactors)

  • 19 3
    VoiceTube posted on 2013/05/13
Video vocabulary

Keywords

essentially

US /ɪˈsenʃəli/

UK /ɪˈsenʃəli/

  • adverb
  • Basically; (said when stating the basic facts)
  • Fundamentally; basically.
  • Relating to the most important aspect of something.
  • In effect; virtually.
  • In essence; when you consider the most important aspects
  • Used to emphasize the basic truth or fact of a situation.
pressure

US /ˈprɛʃɚ/

UK /'preʃə(r)/

  • noun
  • Anxiety caused by difficult problems
  • Force, weight when pressing against a thing
  • Strong persuasion to do something
  • other
  • To apply pressure to something
  • Attempt to persuade or coerce (someone) into doing something.
  • To apply physical force to something.
  • other
  • The burden of physical or mental distress.
  • The difficulties in your life
  • The force exerted per unit area.
  • Force of blood pushing against the walls of the arteries
  • The act of exerting influence or control.
  • Political or social force or influence.
  • A sense of urgency or stress caused by time constraints.
  • A feeling of stressful urgency caused by expectations
  • other
  • The exertion of force upon a surface by an object, fluid, etc., in contact with it.
  • The use of persuasion, influence, or intimidation to make someone do something.
  • The continuous physical force exerted on or against an object by something in contact with it.
  • The force applied in printing to transfer ink to paper or another surface.
  • Stress or strain caused by demands placed on someone.
  • verb
  • To apply force to something
  • To persuade or force someone to do something
fuel

US /ˈfjuəl/

UK /'fju:əl/

  • verb
  • To give power to (a mob, anger, etc.); incite
  • To provide gas or petrol for something
  • To supply with fuel; to stimulate or intensify.
  • noun
  • A substance that is burned to produce heat or power.
  • Material used to produce heat or power when burned
reaction

US /riˈækʃən/

UK /rɪ'ækʃn/

  • noun
  • Bodily response to a drug or something eaten
  • Feeling or action in response to something
  • A process in which substances change chemically when they are mixed together
  • Opposition to political or social change
  • Something you say or do because of something that has happened or been said
core

US /kɔr, kor/

UK /kɔ:(r)/

  • noun
  • The muscles of the abdomen and back.
  • The central or innermost part of something.
  • An independent processing unit in a CPU.
  • A required set of courses in a curriculum.
  • The most important or essential part of something.
  • The most important or essential part of something.
  • The hard central part of certain fruits, containing the seeds.
  • A cylindrical sample of a substance, such as rock or soil, obtained by drilling.
  • A cylindrical sample of rock or soil obtained by drilling.
  • The muscles of the abdomen and back.
  • The central part of a nuclear reactor where the nuclear reactions take place.
  • The central part of a nuclear reactor where the nuclear reactions take place.
  • Important central part of something
  • adjective
  • Fundamental; essential.
  • Fundamental; essential.
  • verb
  • To take out the central section of a fruit
  • other
  • To remove the core from a fruit.
  • To remove the core from (a fruit).
energy

US /ˈɛnədʒi/

UK /'enədʒɪ/

  • noun
  • Physical or mental strength
  • other
  • Power or capacity applied to perform a task in computing.
  • Resources used for power, fuel, etc., especially in economic terms.
  • Enthusiasm and determination.
  • The capacity to do work.
  • The strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity.
  • The strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity.
water

US /ˈwɔtɚ, ˈwɑtɚ/

UK /'wɔ:tə(r)/

  • noun
  • Clear liquid that forms the seas, rivers and rain
  • Large area such as an ocean or sea
  • verb
  • (Of the eyes) to produce tears
  • (Mouth) to become wet at the thought of nice food
  • To pour liquids onto a plant to keep it alive
plant

US /plænt/

UK /plɑ:nt/

  • noun
  • The act of putting something in the ground to grow
  • The machinery, equipment, and fixtures with which an industrial process is carried out
  • Factory or a place where things are made
  • A person or thing placed in a group to act as a spy or to elicit information.
  • A living thing that grows in the earth and usually has a stem, leaves, and roots, especially one that is smaller than a tree
  • Living thing with leaves and roots growing in soil
  • other
  • To put (a seed, seedling, or plant) in the ground or in a pot or other container so that it will grow.
  • To put or set firmly in a particular place or position, especially secretly
  • To put (a seed, seedling, or plant) in the ground or soil so that it can grow
  • To place (something) in a particular spot, especially in order to deceive someone.
  • verb
  • To firmly position something (in the ground)
  • To put seeds, flowers, trees in the ground
excited

US /ɪkˈsaɪtɪd/

UK /ɪkˈsaɪtɪd/

  • verb
  • To make something or someone become more active
  • To make someone feel happy, interested or eager
  • other
  • Aroused or stimulated (a feeling or reaction).
  • Feeling or showing enthusiasm and eagerness.
  • adjective
  • Happy, interested or eager; enthusiastic
steam

US /stim/

UK /sti:m/

  • noun
  • Mist collecting on a surface when wet air cools
  • Source of stamina, strength or energy
  • Mist of water in the air formed when water boils
  • verb
  • To cover a surface with steam, so as to clean it
  • To cook in mist of tiny drops from boiling water
  • To produce or give off a hot gas by boiling liquid
  • To travel or move using steam as a force
  • adjective
  • (Train, engine) powered by boiling water