Can a pebble bed reactor melt down?

X-energy , located just outside the nation’s capital in Rockville, Maryland, is working on a pebble bed, high-temperature gas-cooled reactor that the company says can’t melt down.

Are pebble bed reactors safe?

Some examples of this type of reactor are claimed to be passively safe. Because the reactor is designed to handle high temperatures, it can cool by natural circulation and still survive in accident scenarios, which may raise the temperature of the reactor to 1,600 °C (2,910 °F).

Can modern nuclear reactors meltdown?

The effects of a nuclear meltdown depend on the safety features designed into a reactor. A modern reactor is designed both to make a meltdown unlikely, and to contain one should it occur. In a modern reactor, a nuclear meltdown, whether partial or total, should be contained inside the reactor’s containment structure.

Why is thorium named after Thor?

In 1815, for example, Berzelius isolated a new element from a mineral sent to him from the Swedish mining town of Falun and named it thorium after the Scandinavian god of thunder, Thor….

Discovery date	1829
Origin of the name	Thorium is named after Thor, the Scandinavian god of war.
Allotropes

Which country has no nuclear power?

As of 2016, countries including Australia, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Italy, Estonia, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal and Serbia have no nuclear power stations and remain opposed to nuclear power.

What is the THTR-300 reactor?

The THTR-300 was a helium-cooled high-temperature reactor with a pebble bed core consisting of approximately 670,000 spherical fuel compacts each 6 centimetres (2. 4 in) in diameter with particles of uranium-235 and thorium-232 fuel embedded in a graphite matrix. The pressure vessel that contained the pebbles was prestressed concrete.

Why was the THTR-300 electrical generation finished late?

The electrical generation part of the THTR-300 was finished late due to ever-newer requirements and licensing procedures. It was constructed in Hamm-Uentrop from 1970 to 1983 by Hochtemperatur-Kernkraftwerk GmbH (HKG). Heinz Riesenhuber, Federal Secretary of Research at that time, inaugurated it, and it first went critical on September 13, 1983.

Is the HTR-500 project still in development?

By 1992, a group of firms planned to proceed with construction of a HTR-500, the successor of the THTR-300, but up-rated to a thermal output of 1250 megawatts and an electrical output of 500 megawatts. However nothing is currently in any stage of development.

What happened to the SL-1 nuclear reactor?

The Stationary Low-Power Reactor Number One, or SL-1, was a nuclear reactor located in the desert forty miles outside of Idaho Falls, Idaho. On January 3, 1961, the reactor exploded, killing three workers and causing a meltdown.