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To: Her Majesty's Government of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Jean Claude Juncker, presedient of the European Commision

Construct Molten Salt Nuclear Reactors

Encourage construction of Molten Salt Reactors - Especially 'Lifters' (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors)

Why is this important?

LFTR is a safe and zero carbon form of electrical power generation. With sufficient investment, this form of power can be cheaper than coal whilst also being so much safer and better for the environment (bearing in mind coal already produces more radioactive waste than current nuclear power reactors)

Compared to renewables, LFTRs require much less land than wind or solar for the same power generation, resulting in greater land area for trees or planting crops (e.g. biofuels)

LFTR is liquid and requires no water coolant, whilst also being safer as a solid plug will melt during a meltdown so all of the radioactive material escapes to an underground casing protecting the environment.

The waste produced has a shorter half-life so is radioactive for less time, and the waste is very difficult to turn into nuclear weapons. However, since the half life is so great, the radiation will be pretty much harmless.

The reactor can be controlled a lot better, as the atoms have neutron shot at them in a canon, so in an emergency the neutron canon is shut off, so the reactor can be controlled and stopped a lot faster than the current Uranium Fast breed reactor.

Nuclear Power also saves lives. Coal kills over 15,000 per trillion kWh produced in the US alone. That figure increases over 10 fold in China. Currently, Nuclear only kills 90 people per trillion kWh produced, which is lower than all forms of renewables

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jamesconca/2012/06/10/energys-deathprint-a-price-always-paid/

Category

Updates

2017-07-25 17:57:15 +0100

50 signatures reached

2016-03-16 08:57:13 +0000

25 signatures reached

2015-10-28 10:05:39 +0000

10 signatures reached

2015-05-14 16:24:59 +0100

After emailing the DECC with a response through the post, I have clearly touched on an issue which is becoming important. The main point I take from the letter is as follows;

"Since your last message, we have also financed the creation of laboratories at the Universities of Lancaster and Edinburgh that are capable of working with the fuel types and materials used in MSR designs"

From the letter is also became apparent that we should be expecting a few new plans for Nuclear Power Stations within the next few years, but currently none of the proposed sites will use LFTR or any MSR designs until they are at a level of technological development where their remaining technical challenges have been overcome. Since China has pretty much created a MSR we must be on the verge of them becoming commercially viable.

We still need support! With extra attention, I believe that we should be planning construction of a Molten Salt Reactor by the end of 2016!