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Oak Ridge National Laboratory held an annual get-together of developers of molten salt reactors in November, 2024. Dane Wilson presented the the Thorcon 500 liquid fuel fission power plant development.
Thorcon development is aided by Milano Multiphysics, Virginia Tech, University of California Berkeley, Argonne National Laboratory, and Empresarios Agrupados.
Amazon, Google, and Microsoft committed billions of dollars to power their data centers with ample, reliable electricity from nuclear power. Each, with over $100 billion cash on hand, can afford whatever it costs in this competition. Nuclear power can help the rich tech firms, but not the developing nations unless it’s low cost.
Here are the design choices leading to Thorcon low-cost nuclear.
Thorcon and six supporting Indonesia agencies have officially submitted a proposal to the National Energy Council to prepare to install Indonesia’s first nuclear power plant. Proposers include Thorcon and Indonesia national agencies:
– Energy Strategy and Policy Research Agency
– Directorate New, Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation
– Ministry of Energy and – Mineral Resources
– Engineering Innovation Center at Gadjah Mada University
– Electric power utility PLN’s engineering division
– Bangka Belitung University
Double-hulled ThorCon nuclear power plant (2x500MW) will be towed to the Indonesian site and fixed in place.
The government of Indonesia is supporting a project to build a 500 MW nuclear fission power plant at Kelasa Island based on a highly innovative design suited for future mass production. The plant, built within a double hull by shipyards, will employ so-called molten salt reactors with unique safety features. The aim is to produce electricity at a price well below that of coal power plants, which currently provide over 60% of Indonesia’s electricity supply. Asia Times 29 Nov 2023
At year-end 2023 Indonesia National Energy Council and ThorCon Power Indonesia signed a Memorandum of Understanding in the council office in Jakarta. The event was attended by several government ministries including the nuclear regulator BAPETEN and staff from the US Embassy.
Secretary General of the National Energy Council, Djoko Siswanto, said “The purpose of this memorandum of understanding is that the National Energy Council strongly supports the development of the first nuclear plant in Indonesia.” The council will submit a proposal to the Government of Indonesia recommending that the ThorCon 500 molten salt reactor be Indonesia’s first nuclear power plant.
On December 1, 2023, ThorCon’s chairman, David Devanney, addressed a round table of leaders attending the UNIPCC Council of the Parties.
There really are only two things wrong with conventional nuclear power today.
It costs too much. It takes too long to build.
How do you build a nuclear power plant inexpensively, quickly and scale up the process so that clean, dispatchable power can be made available on a global scale in time to have significant impact on climate change?
Indonesia has proposed that ThorCon install the prototype of its molten salt reactor power plant on small, unpopulated Gelasa Island east of Sumatra.
Bapeten is Indonesia’s Nuclear Energy Supervisory Agency. At a July 29 public gathering in Batu Bariga village the acting Head of Bapeten, Sugeng Sumbarjo, said the development plan aligns with the central government’s program that targets zero emission by 2060, Sumbarjo said “With the construction plan of PLTT on Gelasa Island, we can help reduce carbon emissions nationally,”
We are pleased to announce that we have signed an agreement with the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency of Indonesia (BAPETEN) to officially start a safety, security, and safeguards consultation in preparation for licensing the 500 MW demonstration nuclear power plant to be located at Kelasa Island in the Province of Bangka-Belitung.
The consultation is expected to take 12 months. We intend to submit license applications following the conclusion of the consultation.
Bureau Veritas, a world leader in testing, inspection and certification, and nuclear power technology developer ThorCon have entered an agreement for the Technology Qualification and the subsequent development of a 500MW molten salt nuclear power barge for operations in Indonesia.
Prototype Fission Power Plant Based on Molten Salt Reactor Technology
ThorCon Power’s main Investor, Chris Anderson, who is also the manager of TED Talks, accompanied by Operations Director of PT ThorCon Power Indonesia, Bob S Effendi, held an audience with the Head of the National Research and Innovation Agency (BRIN), Laksana Tri Handoko.
Indonesia Bangka Tribune News published this article about ThorCon and BRIN. BRIN is the National Research and Innovation Agency, a consolidation of R&D efforts in all government agencies.
Here’s a link to the Google Translate version of the article in Indonesia’s Bahasa language. BANGKAPOS
University Gadjah Mada Engineering Faculty and ThorCon Power Indonesia Cooperate in High Level Safety Assessment of TMSR-500 Design
Prof. Dr. Ir. Selo, ST, MT, M. Sc., Ph.D. as Dean of the UGM Faculty of Engineering together with Bob S. Effendi as Operations Director of PT ThorCon Power Indonesia signed the agreement on June 6.
The Indonesian university and ThorCon agreed to cooperate on the high level safety assessment of TMSR-500, a 500 MW molten salt reactor planned to be built in Indonesia. This assessment is required by the Indonesian government through the recommendation of the Coordinating Ministry for Maritime Affairs and Investment.
The National Research and Innovation Agency of the Republic of Indonesia signed a MOU with PT ThorCon Power Indonesia
The collaboration between BRIN RI and PT ThorCon Power Indonesia is to carry out research, development, and innovation in the nuclear field, especially the modular Thorium Molten Salt Reactor technology, with thorium fuel. This research and development is expected to produce candidate technologies for Nuclear Power Plants (PLTN) prototypes, which will be part of Indonesia’s carbon emission reduction program.
Source in Bahasa indonesia language: https://www.ruangenergi.com/thorcon-power-indonesia-brin-teken-nota-kesepahaman-riset-pengembangan-molten-salt-reactor/
Empresarios Agrupados named as Architect Engineer for ThorCon TMSR-500 Reactor
On 8th November 2021, Empresarios Agrupados (EAI) signed an architect engineering contract for ThorCon’s 500 MW advanced nuclear power plant for Indonesia. The TMSR-500, as the Indonesians like to call the plant, will demonstrate a way to solve Indonesia’s energy needs with a non-intermittent source of power that is carbon-free, low cost and safe.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory molten salt workshop, October 2021
Plants are built complete in a shipyard, towed to a site in Indonesia, ballasted to the seabed, and then connected to the grid.
Costs are estimated at $1.2B for a 1GWe site. Largely verified by DSME and Doosan
A large shipyard can produce 20 GWe/year.
Build time is 1 year. Time from permits and land to grid power is 2 years.
Electricity costs are $0.03 USD/kWhr
Can compete directly with coal in the developing world.
Recent change is the addition of the vault – dry cask storage for 80 years operation by adding 5m to the 180m long hull
We were surprised in August 2021 to see ThorCon featured in a new video by Tech for Luddites, which excels in explaining new technologies in a charming, sassy way. Their ads target people interested in learning about new technologies with global impact.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uljEr4En6iY&t=13s
Dr. Kun Chen, ThorCon Chief Nuclear Officer, presented six education workshops especially to inform Indonesian scientists, officials, and professors about the technology and safety of the ThorCon 500 MW prototype molten salt reactor power plant. Attendees were from Indonesia’s
Bandung Institute of Technology (ITB),
Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources,
Nuclear Energy Regulatory Agency (Bapeten),
National Nuclear Energy Agency (Batan), and
Perusahaan Listrik Negara (the electric company PLN).
The workshops topics are:
1. History and current status of MSRs
2. ThorCon 500 plant and MSR safety features
3. Neutronics and thermal hydraulics
4. Operation and balance of plant
5. Off-gas, fuel transfer, and instrumentation and control systems
6. Design and safety assessment process, typical MSR DBAs, and pre-fission test platform
These Zoom workshops were recorded and are now available on YouTube.
Chris Anderson, Founder of the TED organization, is the lead investor in ThorCon. He addresses Indonesia energy policy makers gathered via Zoom, February 26, 2021. Excerpts of his video remarks follow.
In his TED interview with Anderson, Bill Gates asked how are we going to power our future, without causing terrible damage to the planet? Nuclear energy absolutely has an essential role to play in humanity’s future.
The quest to find a great nuclear company to invest in is what brought Anderson to ThorCon. He settled on ThorCon for three main reasons.
1. The scalability of the company: Recalling Elon Musk’s TED interview, the need is to build a machine that builds the machines. The ThorCon approach using shipyards is brilliant — a breakthrough.
2. Fundamentally conservative engineering culture: Solving climate change requires scaling up, cost effectively.
3. The response in Indonesia: Cautious, but not wanting to block the fundamental approach to a better future. Indonesia could play a world-leading role in solving climate change, while at the same time increasing prosperity for its people.
UNS — Universitas Sebelas Maret (UNS) Surakarta signed a Partnership Agreement with ThorCon International, Pte. Ltd virtually on Thursday (7/1/2021). The agreement manuscript was signed directly by the Chair of Institute for Research and Community Engagement (LPPM), Prof. Okid Parama Astirin, and Chief Representative of ThorCon International, Pte. Ltd, Bob Soelaiman Effendi.
The partnership between the two institutions covers “Research and Mapping Survey on Community Acceptance Related on the Establishment of Nuclear Power Plant as the Solution for Sustainable and Environmentally Friendly Energy to Pursue the Prosperous and Low Carbon Indonesia in 2050.”
ThorCon CEO Lars Jorgensen answers this in a concise talk invited by Oak Ridge National Laboratories in late 2020.
Indonesia is the fourth most populous nation on earth, and its leadership is motivated to grow electric power from 70 to 420 GW in 2050. Government agencies have greenlighted ThorCon, signed MOUs, and visited EPC DSME and turbine supplier DHI.
Enjoy the video, edited by Gordon McDowell.
ThorCon continues to move forward with its molten salt reactor demonstration program in Indonesia. MOU’s regarding its 500 MW power plant have been signed with PLN, the state-owned utility; Indonesia Power, the country’s largest power plant operator; with PT PAL, the state-owned shipyard; and with the Governor of Bangka who wants the plant located in his province. In July the Indonesian Government gave ThorCon the green light for the demonstration plant. Site feasibility and grid integration studies are being organized. Preparations for pre-fission testing of the primary power loop have begun. This full scale version of the reactor will be built and tested at PT PAL’s shipyard in Surabaya. An important round of funding has just been successfully completed which will provide the funds required to bring the program to the point where construction on the pre-fission test platform is ready to begin. This is scheduled for January of 2022.
The fuel salt chemistry continuously evolves as transmutations, fission product generation, structural material constituents dissolution, salt ingress into graphite pores, off-gassing, precipitation of insoluble species, and temperature cycling occur.
ThorCon is working with US national labs to optimize molten salt fuel performance, which depends on nuclear, chemical, and physical properties.
This Indonesia university in Surakarta will work with ThorCon to survey community acceptance in Bangka Belitung Province, review the design, and conduct education and training programs.
According to ThorCon, the firm and Indonesia’s Defence Ministry have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to study developing a 50 MW thorium molten salt reactor (TMSR) for either power generation or marine vehicle propulsion.
ThorCon CEO Lars Jorgensen presents an in-depth look at the ThorCon thorium-converting molten salt reactor to an audience of Indonesia government officials and scientists. Independent videographer Gordon McDowell created this fast-moving, informative, trending video attracting many comments. YouTube captions are available in English and Indonesian.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory alum Dane Wilson explains ThorCon progress to powering up Indonesia with liquid fission power plants. Dane is ThorCon’s materials expert. Dane’s talk includes redundant passive decay heat cooling systems, collaboration with Argonne National Labs work on salt properties and computational evolution, seismic characteristics, and airplane impact safety. Click here for Dane’s YouTube video.
Scientists attending the International Conference on Emerging Nuclear Energy Systems in Bali, Indonesia, were excited by ThorCon CEO Lars Jorgensen’s presentation of the design of the TMSR-500 liquid fission power plant. The ThorCon team then returned to state-owned shipyard PT PAL Indonesia, which had begun reviewing ThorCon specifications in July.
P3Tek presented the results of a 10-month study of the ThorCon thorium/uranium-fueled molten salt reactor (MSR) power plant. The study reviewed regulation, safety, economics, and the grid load and concluded the ThorCon TMSR500 liquid fission power plant can supply Indonesia electricity needs in 2026-2027. September 17, 2019
“The thorium molten salt power plant can produce clean energy cheaper than coal, which could be reliable energy system toward a low-carbon economy,” PAL said.
Gary Bergstrom is jumping from the world of data-based investing to the gritty problem of how best to supply relatively inexpensive energy to the developing world. June 7, 2019
Jim Conca wrote about ThorCon in Forbes on May 31, 2019.
The most dangerous energy ... is none at all.
CEO Lars Jorgensen at the Thorium Energy World conference in Brussels in October 2018. ThorCon safety does not depend on skilled operators or faultless software. The audience was stunned to see a complete basic design of a real liquid fission power plant, and to receive detailed answers to probing questions.
Power Magazine wrote about ThorCon in its May 2019 issue.
The fuel salt chemistry continuously evolves as transmutations, fission product generation, structural material constituents dissolution, salt ingress into graphite pores, off-gassing, precipitation of insoluble species, and temperature cycling occur.
ThorCon is working with US national labs to optimize molten salt fuel performance, which depends on nuclear, chemical, and physical properties.