Russia Unveils Detailed Plans To Build 21 New Nuclear Power Units By 2030

[PamW]

52. 100% WRONG!! AGAIN!!

intaglio,

We want to fission the element to destroy it. It doesn't have to be a suitable fuel.

Put your brain in gear and follow along.

Suppose I have something that is a poor fuel but is still combustible; like wet wood.

You can't build a fire with wet wood.

However, suppose I put that wet wood in an incinerator that is fed by gas.

The gas fuel keeps the fire going; and eventually that fire is going to burn up the wood.

The same is true in the nuclear case. The U-238 or thorium is like wet wood.

We fuel the reactor with U-235 or Pu-239. Those fissile elements act like the gas fuel for the incinerator and keep it going.

As long as the U-238 or thorium has a non-zero fission cross-section; which the DO; then they can be fissioned and transmuted into short-lived fission products.

Neither the U-238 nor the thorium has to sustain the nuclear reaction; the U-235 and Pu-239 will do that.

Just as the wet wood doesn't have to sustain the flame of the incinerator; the gas fuel does that.

My Lord; a CHILD could understand this; but it appears to be beyond the mental capabilities of some.

I can explain it to you. But I can't understand it for you.

PamW