Jonathn Schattke of Schattke Advanced Nuclear Engineering talks about the Simple Advanced Fast Reactor
Electricity… the lifeblood of a modern life. The single most accurate predictor of productivity, longevity and GDP. Power means prosperity for the countries that have enough,
and those that don’t struggle day by day, desperately trying to make something of themselves some way.
How to make power for these people has been the question faced by everyone who wishes to see them prosperous.
Hydroelectric power has many benefits, but is not suitable everywhere
and the catastrophic damage when a damn breaks is heartrending.
Coal is cheap and abundant… but kills by air pollution and mining accidents.
And the least expensive lignite coals burned in unscrubbed coal plants are the fuel of choice for the undercapitalized developing world (work on wording here)
Gas Turbines are reasonably cheap to build, but gas exploitation and infrastructure carry their own dangers.
Wind and Solar are, sadly, unreliable;
and supporting energy storage is both expensive and comes with its own environmental impacts.
Nuclear power is clean, and can provide immense amounts of power. However, they are expensive,
they have had spectacular accidents,
and there is an active anti-nuclear movement.
ven so, Nuclear power is the safest electricity source on the planet.
What if we could solve these issues with Nuclear Power? Make it inexpensive to build to high standards, guarantee there could be no radiation releases, answer every charge from the anti-nuclear crowd about waste, fuel sustainability, safety, and security?
Schattke Advanced Nuclear Engineering has the solution. The Simple Advanced Fast Reactor is a radical approach to nuclear power. Simplification is the key… and we can simplify to the point of having no moving parts during operation. We can have constant operation for decades. We can have a fuel stream consisting only of Thorium. We can burn the spent fuel from less advanced nuclear power options.
How? The SANE SAFR uses the simplest possible molten salt core to start. This proven technology keeps the fuel in a puddle of inert liquid with a very high boiling point - and our patented design assures that this puddle can only reach temperatures well within our cauldron’s safety temperature. A destructive meltdown like Three Mile Island is literally impossible. And there is no fuel for a core burn like Chernobyl or Fukushima.
The SANE SAFR uses a compact power cycle based on a direct electricity generation. This is done through a magneto-hydrodynamic generator taking advantage of the Lorentz force and plasma currents.
The whole design is an elegant matching of engineering properties and quite possibly could only be done with these material choices.
And by targeting a smaller reactor size, we can maintain the simplicity and allow rapid deployment with a fraction of the onsite build time.
This means we can have a plant capital cost cheaper than Natural Gas, use the cheapest fuel known to man, and produce power for prosperity in places that cannot afford the massive expense and careful oversight needed for conventional nuclear options.
I am Jonathan Schattke, and I changed my life so that I could change yours.
Schattke Advanced Nuclear Engineering’s Simple Advanced Fast Reactor is power for prosperity.