Thorcon is a project for a modular molten salt nuclear reactor. It is proposed by Martingale of Florida in the United States of America; a prototype is planned for 2020. In December 2015, Thorcon signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Indonesia Thorium Consortium to develop its molten salt reactor technology in Indonesia.
ThorCon takes the original ORNL Molten Salt Reactor design and scales it up without relying on new research.
The proposed reactor design uses a mixture of sodium fluoride and beryllium fluoride as carrier, with uranium and/or thorium fluoride salt as the fuel charge dissolved in the carrier salt.
Thorcon uses modular sealed nuclear-grade stainless steel containment units called "cans". There are two for each reactor so that one unit can be operative while the previous, spent module can cool down for 4 years, after which it is removed and replaced with a new one.
ThorCon is designed to be cheaper than coal to make electricity. Four major design issues come together resulting in a low cost design:
molten salt reactor characteristics
Due to passive safety, cost is reduced due to less safety equipment, Also, reactor building size is reduced.
Due to high temperature, ThorCon uses the same supercritical steam turbine-generator as a modern coal plant. Also, 43% of the energy is converted to electricity reducing the cost of cooling towers.
Due to low pressure, costly reinforced concrete and 9-inch-thick forgings are eliminated. Also, no large containment dome is needed.
Due to liquid fuel, ThorCon can move fuel around with a pump. No fuel rods are needed. No bull dozers are needed.
Due to energy density of uranium being much higher than coal. the ThorCon plant can be much smaller than a coal plant using fewer resources and reducing cost.
materials selection
Selected NaF-BeF2 as the coolant salt over FLiBe to reduce cost.
Selected stainless steel over Hastelloy-N to reduce cost.
Selected thorium plus uranium for the least cost fuel.
ship building technology
Double hull techniques will be used in place of reinforced concrete walls. The walls will be made in the shipyard and filled with concrete at the site reducing wall construction costs.
Large modules shipped by barge allow extensive testing at shipyard and reduced costly testing and welding on site.
Shipyards have experienced staff that know how to organize and execute large projects.
regulatory validation through testing
A molten salt reactor has never been used commercially to produce electricity. Building, running, and testing the new reactor system with many problem scenarios is cheaper, quicker, and better than convincing the regulator prior to first construction. Indonesia may be the first regulator.
Thorcon is a walk-away safe plant design. This implies that no operator action, electricity supply, support system or coolant injection is needed in the event of an accident. The Thorcon system relies heavily on inherent safety and passive safety.
ThorCon is a simpler and smaller structure than today's large ships that are rapidly manufactured in large numbers by many shipyards in the world today.
