MIT molten salt reactor project scores top DOE award at innovation summit

[wtmusic]

"A couple of Transatomic Power’s young co-founders - Mark Massie and Leslie Dewan - look more Twitterati than Nuclearati. But make no mistake. They’re obsessed with nuclear power. So much so that this week, the newfangled nuclear reactor they’re developing beat over 200 inventive contestants from across all areas of energy to scoop the top award at a U.S. Department of Energy “innovation summit,” voted by investors and entrepreneurs.

Massie, Dewan and fellow co-founder and CEO Russell Wilcox - the former CEO of electronic display innovator E-Ink - are developing what’s called a “molten salt reactor” (MSR). Proponents of MSRs say they are meltdown-proof, and that they are safer and more cost effective than the conventional reactors that the nuclear industry has built for some 50 years. Transatomic’s MSR would also use existing nuclear waste as fuel, thus alleviating the vexing problem of where to store nuclear waste (see their YouTube video below).

Pitted against breakthroughs in solar, water treatment, clean fracking, biofuels and other areas, the company this week beat eight finalists in a “pitch-off“ in front of a clean technology group that included a panel of four corporate and venture capital investors who moderated the pitches."

http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/and-the-doe-energy-innovation-award-goes-to-8230-a-new-type-of-nuclear-power/13905

[Trillo]

1. Here it comes. The "safer" nuclear reactor.

Is this "safer" version 5 or 6?

[PoliticAverse]

2. According to the professor's introductory remarks the problem is apparently people...

The technology will be safe if you can eliminate people...

[wtmusic]

3. Yeah, like "safer" airplanes, or "safer" cars...

who do they think they're fooling?!