Terrapower is a nuclear reactor design company headquartered in bellevue, washington, united states. Development of a diversity and defenseindepth strategy. In just a few years terrapower has transformed itself from developing a single advanced reactor design to become a dynamic hub of innovation in multiple areas of nuclear science. Inside the lab where terrapower is planning nuclear energy. Doe illustration terrapower, the nuclear energy venture backed by microsoft cofounder bill gates and headquartered in. If you think about the amount of u235 that we burn in light water reactors, standard 35% low enriched uranium, 9597% of the unburnt fuel is still usable fertile u238 that can be burned but in fast neutron reactors. Geh and terrapower announce collaboration to support vtr.
Levesque said the fact that terrapowers reactor designs were born in the pacific. It allows us to, for example, make digital copies of a reactor, change them all slightly differently, simulate 40 years of operation, and see which. Bill gates pitching fourthgen terrapower nuclear reactors to. Apr 03, 2020 the advanced reactor modeling interface armi software is a productivity tool written by engineers for nuclear reactor design and analysis. Michael edwards manager, reactor mechanical design. Shield design must also take into account buildup, inelastic neutron scatter, gammas from neutron capture, geometry, thermal.
A line reactor also referred to as an electrical reactor or a choke is a variable frequency drive vfd accessory that consists of a coil of wire that forms a magnetic field as current flows through it. Unlike most other nuclear startups, terrapower decided to build their laboratory, and the necessary components to test onsite if key elements of their design worked. Gates is the chairman of terrapower, a startup whose design for a travelingwave reactor could make. Development of a diversity and defenseindepth strategy for. Jan 27, 2019 yes, sodium is a very reactive metal but it has some tremendous advantages. Why did terrapower choose use sodium instead of water, lead. But he listed some of the other reasons why the molten chloride. Gas flex a process gas compressor program utilizing bwr equations of state. Terrapower has developed twr designs for low to medium 300 mwe as well as high power mwe generation facilities. Chemical reactor design chemical industries 1st edition. Terrapower is widely recognized for its gamechanging reactor design software. Aug 11, 2019 a panoramic view of terrapowers laboratory shows a fullscale fuel assembly test stand at the center of the frame with lab facility manager brian morris pointing out details toward the left. Msr experiments were conducted in the 1960s, and modern computing power, materials and engineering developments enable the revival of new research and development of msr technology. Feb 15, 2010 terrapowers president john gilleland explains the process in one video as a new type of nuclear reactor that can provide an infinite amount of power, and unlike the current reactor design that uses only enriched uranium for fuel, terrapowers reactor largely uses waste byproduct of that enrichment process, or waste uranium.
Since the beginning, terrapower has hastened its pace of innovation with smart software. The design of the reactor was declared in 2014 in an article available on arxiv and subsequently also distributed in the journal fusion engineering and design, in 2015. In 2006, terrapower set out to develop sustainable, scalable, and lowcarbon energy in the traveling wave reactor twr program, featuring. Selected information on the twrp core designs are also provided in the areas of neutronic, thermal hydraulic and fuel performance. Find all the books, read about the author, and more. I also aporeciate the generous charity and human development donations he and his wife melinda have done with their bountiful money. Within the project, a wide range of materials for thermochemical energy stores have been experimentally investigated. Terrapowers engineers and scientists have successfully come up with next generation advanced nuclear reactor designs. Dec 09, 2019 in just a few years terrapower has transformed itself from developing a single advanced reactor design to become a dynamic hub of innovation in multiple areas of nuclear science. The twrp digital control system dcs is currently being designed by terrapower. Terrapower, llc traveling wave reactor development program. Ansys engineering simulation for reactor design including cfd for chemical reactor design, structural and thermal analysis and instrumentation and control software used for design and analysis of chemical reactors enable reaction engineers to answer whatif questions as they design and enhance reactors performance, energy usage, reactor yield. Jan 21, 2020 this cutaway graphic shows the design of the versatile test reactor. Yes, sodium is a very reactive metal but it has some tremendous advantages.
Zen wang manager, engineering integration terrapower llc. Terrapowers nuclear reactor could power the 21st century. We only use less than 35% of the energy in nuclear fuel from the fissile u235. The company provides traveling wave reactor that provides fuel cycle which allows nuclear energy to produce electricity. In this role, you will support the development of advanced generation iv reactor plants. Test reactor irradiation programs and ion irradiation programs established. In this system, wastewater is added to a single batch reactor, treated to remove undesirable components, and then discharged.
Terrapower plugs into open source community to improve advanced nuclear software capabilities. With the advent of todays analytical and modeling software, terrapower has been able to create the. Bill gates has joined a field of inventors and investors in the future of nuclear energy. Terrapower to leave china, but bill gates is still in the. Terrapower is a nuclear innovation company dedicated to developing advanced nuclear reactors that will provide carbonfree energy to billions. Designing a new, next generation nuclear reactor like the traveling wave reactor twr isnt easy. Its part of a drive to be a thought leader for the industry and to demonstrate that the technologies it. Terrapower could be a safe nuclear option revolutiongreen. Bill gates long and tireless efforts to close a deal with china national nuclear corp. View zen wangs profile on linkedin, the worlds largest professional community. Inside the lab where terrapower is planning nuclear energys future.
Bill gates pitching fourthgen terrapower nuclear reactors. A chemical reactor cum heat exchanger hex reactor design bhr group ltd. Latkowski declined to go into details on the new reactor design. In the focus are reversible gas solid reactions with water vapour as one reactant. Terrapower inks deal with chinas cnnc to build fast reactor. The european sustainable nuclear industrial initiative is funding three generation iv reactor systems, one of which is a sodiumcooled fast reactor, called astrid, advanced sodium technical reactor for industrial demonstration, areva, cea and edf are leading the design with british collaboration. The advanced reactor modeling interface armi software is a productivity tool written by engineers for nuclear reactor design and analysis. Senior nuclear engineer reactor physicist with background and experience in fast reactor design and methods development, radiation transport for shielding applications, and nuclear software. One useful function of laboratory experiments is the ability to simulate process conditions within welldefined zones of pilot or plant scale. On december 31, 2016, nuscale power submitted the first ever small modular reactor smr design certification application dca to the nuclear regulatory commission nrc. Since the beginning, terrapower has hastened its pace of innovation with smart software design. Advanced modeling software to aid in reactor design. Zen wang manager, engineering integration terrapower. The twr concept places a small core of enriched fuel in the center of a much larger mass of nonfissile material, in this case depleted uranium.
The arc design aims to achieve an engineering breakeven of three to produce three times the electricity required to operate the machine while being about. This is a great way to accelerate the deployment of advanced nuclear technologies in the u. Its part of a drive to be a thought leader for the industry and to demonstrate that the technologies it is working on will have a commercial future. Chemical reactor design and millions of other books are available for amazon kindle. Terrapower is developing a class of nuclear fast reactors called the traveling wave reactor twr. The safety of the terrapower reactor stems in part from inherent design factors. Oct 21, 2015 terrapower quietly explores new nuclear reactor strategy. Why did terrapower choose use sodium instead of water. Jul 25, 20 bill gates nuclear firm plans hot, salty push into power. No twr has yet been constructed, but in 2006 intellectual ventures launched a spinoff named terrapower to model and commercialize a working design of such a reactor, which later came to be called a travelingwave reactor. Engineers aide sinet fluid flow analysis, equipment sizing and.
Does established opensource software programs already present a great tradition of collaboration and codevelopment. Sep 23, 2015 terrapower inks deal with chinas cnnc to build fast reactor posted on september 23, 2015 by djysrv china national nuclear corp. The big upside of the traveling wave reactor is that it converts depleted uranium, a byproduct of the nuclearfission process, into usable fuel. The firm is really proud of our open source software and the fact that we are able to share it with nuclear engineering schools, levesque said.
System power controlled by neutron balance average 2. I respect bill gates and recognize the honest success he has attained. The arc fusion reactor short for affordable, robust, compact is a theoretical design for a compact fusion reactor developed by the massachusetts institute of technology mit plasma science and fusion center psfc. Until terrapower decided on the concept in 2006, no one considered the practical engineering and fuel performance limits for the design. Defenseindepth d3 strategy for the terrapower traveling wave reactorprototype twrp advanced nuclear power plant. In the official brochure of the prototype sparc project, it is explained that arc concept was born as a project undertaken by a group of mit students in a fusion design course. Among the growing field of startups attempting to bring advanced nuclear reactors to market, terrapower stands outpartly because its wellfunded, and partly because of whos doing the funding. Manager, reactor mechanical design terrapower llc 2018 present 1 year.
To create the traveling wave reactor twr design, terrapower has put. Inside the lab where terrapower is planning nuclear energys. Leads a growing team of engineers responsible for the mechanical design of the twr reactor. A rendering of terrapowers traveling wave reactor design. Our application consisted of 12,000 pages of technical information. Now, via this open source effort, these tools will be available to. Batch reactor 7 klm technology group has developed. Are you a supporter of bill gates terrapower reactor as a. Opensource software can help improve options for advanced reactor designs and to lay the. Such a fission reactor would take 50100 years to burn itself down, with virtually. These facilities are part of larger industrial sites that combine civil, building, transmission, and power generation infrastructure. This cutaway graphic shows the design of the versatile test reactor.
Terrapower has developed twr designs for low to medium 300 mwe as well as highpower mwe generation facilities. Terrapower picks spx flow to design pumps for nuclear reactor. Of course, all power reactors are designed with safety systems. Each one has a coping time, which indicates how long a stricken reactor can go on without human intervention before catastrophe occurs. Defenseindepth d3 strategy for the terrapower traveling wave reactor prototype twrp advanced nuclear power plant. The chemical reactor design tool crdt is a set of computer programs that solves the equations describing common chemical reactor models. This design leads to inherently safe processes and also results in significantly improved product yield.
Leads a growing team of engineers responsible for the mechanical design of. First of all, while it is reactive to air and water, it is not reactive to many metals including stainless steel. Jul 18, 2018 for example, some members of congress in the 1950s thought that a small reactor experiment would tell the engineers most of what they needed to know to build a power reactor. Composite modeling is being used to evolve and optimize reactor designs. For example, some members of congress in the 1950s thought that a small reactor experiment would tell the engineers most of what they needed to know to build a power reactor. Is seeking a highly motivated senior plant design engineer. Such a fission reactor would take 50100 years to burn itself down, with virtually no maintenance required or spent fuel to dispose of. Terrapower is creating a traveling wave reactor to get nuclear fission on the cleanenergy map. Terrapower plugs into open source community to improve. It provides a digital model of a nuclear reactor at your fingertips. Detail added to reactor and fuel design for the twr concept. Terrapowers conceptual and engineering design and associated technology. Nov 26, 2019 i respect bill gates and recognize the honest success he has attained.
Thrust directly related to therm al power of reactor. Recent efforts led developers to the opensource community to share and improve the collective knowledge of software tools for advanced reactor systems. Open sourcing the advanced reactor modeling interface. Terrapowers president john gilleland explains the process in one video as a new type of nuclear reactor that can provide an infinite amount of power, and unlike the current reactor design that uses only enriched uranium for fuel, terrapowers reactor largely uses waste byproduct of that enrichment process, or waste uranium. Private partnership to design and construct the versatile test reactor vtr for. A panoramic view of terrapowers laboratory shows a fullscale fuel assembly test stand at the center of the frame with lab facility manager brian morris pointing out details toward the left. The startup is exploring a molten chloride reactor concept, but says it remains committed to traveling wave reactors. With an opensource portion of terrapowers software, terrapowers advanced reactor modeling interface provides an integration platform that can improve the usability and coupling of physics kernels and reactor analysis methodologies, whether they be proprietary or publicly available. Candidates must have extensive experience in civilstructural design and analysis, preferably with nuclear power plant design or construction. Terrapower and ge hitachi team up on nuclear research project.
In an effort to help the next generation of advanced nuclear developers, terrapower made the framework portion of its advanced reactor modeling interface available as opensource software for others to use. Terrapower is a bill gatesbacked nuclear energy technology company based in bellevue, washington, usa with the goal of providing a more affordable, secure and environmentally friendly form of nuclear energy. Computational tools for the integrated design of advanced nuclear. The same cannot be said about lead or leadbismuth eu. Terrapower quietly explores new nuclear reactor strategy. The mcfr design is a type of molten salt reactor msr. Terrapower is a nuclear innovation company dedicated to developing advanced. The reactor design methods described in these chapters attempt to bridge the gap between benchscale fuelcharacterization tests and conditions prevailing in thermochemical fuel conversion processes. Nuclear power plants harness energy produced in a nuclear reactor to generate power through traditional steam generation. Chemcad safety net plant safety and piping networks software. Ge hitachi nuclear energy geh and terrapower have announced a.
This magnetic field limits the rate of rising of the current, thus reducing harmonics and protecting the drive from power system surges and. Jake hader senior engineer, reactor physicist, nuclear. Space reactor design overview presented by mike houts. Spx flow has been chosen to design the pumps for terrapowers traveling wave reactor twrtm plant that has the potential to move nuclear energy into a new era, according to a statement from spx flow. Terrapower llc company profile and news bloomberg markets. Inside the lab where bill gates terrapower is inventing the future of nuclear energy. If radical innovation makes nuclear power expensive, why do. Terrapower, llc develops nuclear reactor technology.
If radical innovation makes nuclear power expensive, why. Wastewater technology fact sheet sequencing batch reactors description the sequencing batch reactor sbr is a fillanddraw activated sludge system for wastewater treatment. Dec 08, 2011 microsoft founder bill gates met with chinas largest nuclear group this week to discuss the future of the countrys nuclear energy program. Vc heavyweight vinod khosla and bill gates get behind a wildly unorthodox nuclear reactor design. They run a huge nuclear group in china, the country that will lead the world in nuclear by embracing unconventional designs. Bill gates nuclear firm plans hot, salty push into power. Bill gates talks private nuclearfission plant terrapower. Oct 04, 2019 does established opensource software programs already present a great tradition of collaboration and codevelopment. Microsoft founder bill gates met with chinas largest nuclear group this week to discuss the future of the countrys nuclear energy program.
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