There are 444 nuclear Fission reactors on planet Earth, some of them very old and ready for decommission. China is building 22 new fission, reactors. There is no fusion reactor producing electricity, and no one is foreseen in the near future. ITER is only a "proof of concept" experiment. Lockheed-Martin claims they will have a prototype working in a few years, but that is only a claim. There are other experiments being developed, such as the Russian/Italian Ignitor designed by Bruno Coppi, who built the Alcator at MIT, but they are only experiments in plasma physics, nothing more.
Tullio

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When I was working at Mondadori Scientific Editions I had as advisers the best Italian experts both in fission reactors and fusion experiments, including prof. Mario Silvestri of Milan Polytechnic and Prof.Piero Caldirola of Milan State University, and I learned from them. I also met Bruno Coppi at Trieste International Center for Theoretical Physics, now Abdus Salam Center, in Trieste in 1968.
I also wrote a chapter on Plasma Physics in the Enciclopedia della Fisica, Roberto Fieschi (ed), ISEDI, 1976. The situation is still the same after 40 years, there is no working fusion reactor.
The CIRENE reactor, with natural uranium fuel and heavy water moderator and cooling liquid, designed by Silvestri was built in Latina and never started, because of a referendum after Chernobyl. Prof Silvestri died soon after.
Tullio

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China has a big problem in air pollution deriving from coal-fired thermal plants, and is going ahead with 22 fission reactors, as "Nature" wrote recently. It should renounce to reprocessing spent fuel elements, since this produces plutonium. which can be used to make bombs. Even a crude plutonium device in the hand of terrorists could become a nightmare.
Tullio

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You can make a bomb with uranium and its a lot simpler to than implodion you need with plutonium to make it go bang

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Life is what you make of it :-)

When i'm good i'm very good , but when i'm bad i'm shi#eloads better ;-) In't I " buttercups " p.m.s.l at authoritie !!;-)

Yes, but you need uranium-235,which is 0.7% of natural uranium.
Tullio
This means you must have an enrichment plant, very big and very costly in electricity.

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How about Thorium-based nuclear power.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium-based_nuclear_power
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor

The TV serie Occupied is a Norwegian political thriller that I follow right now:)
The plot is that Norway is so hard hit by natural disasters in the wake of climate change that the country had to shut down oil and gas extraction.
Instead, the Norwegian government has staked everything on a new environmentally friendly energy source, Thorium.
The problem is that the wars in the Middle East have created an energy crisis in Europe.
A panic-stricken EU asks Russia to go in militarily and force the Norwegians to resume oil and gas production.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okkupert

Carlo Rubbia proposed using Thorium with the fission reaction ignited by a particle accelerator, a tool he knew very well after his leadership at CERN. He called it an "energy amplifier" . Now he is in China and works in Photovoltaics.
Tullio

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Thorium-based nuclear power plants will end up with us all dependant on China as that's where most of it is ... Is that a good idea with what there doing in the South China sea ?!!!!

tullio do you think it's a waste of money trying to get fission working using Hydrogen ?

From what I've read and heard Helium 3 is what they should be using .

Maybe spend the money on the infrastructure to get it and not projects to Mars

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Darth, I think you meant fusion working with hydrogen. Fission splits atoms like uranium, fusion fuses atoms like hydrogen into helium . Helium3 is thought to be needed to help protect the walls of the fusion reactor.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

Thorium-based nuclear power plants will end up with us all dependant on China as that's where most of it is ... Is that a good idea with what there doing in the South China sea ?!!!!

Known high-grade occurrences of Thorium include Australia, India, Norway, the USA and Canada.

World thorium reserves IAEA estimates.
India 21%
Australia 19%
USA 13%

China has less then 1%.

It would be sufficient to dismantle nuclear warheads made from plutonium and mix the plutonium with natural uranium to provide fuel to all existing reactors for many years.
Tullio

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It would be sufficient to dismantle nuclear warheads made from plutonium and mix the plutonium with natural uranium to provide fuel to all existing reactors for many years.
Tullio

Yes. VERY many years.

I was surprised to see that quite a bit of the fuel in US reactors has come from former Russian warheads. But I also assume that means the US has assumed responsibility for the disposal of the remaining radioactive waste from this material.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I was surprised to see that quite a bit of the fuel in US reactors has come from former Russian warheads. But I also assume that means the US has assumed responsibility for the disposal of the remaining radioactive waste from this material.

Not only from Russia.
Sweden as well.
https://translate.google.se/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nyteknik.se%2Fenergi%2Fsverige-gav-bort-plutonium-6417899
It was the US that had to take care of the legacy of the early Swedish nuclear projects. 3.3 kg of plutonium and nine kilograms of uranium has quietly shipped to Savannah River Site in South Carolina in 2012.

And of course.
In a vault in Sellafield, Britain, there is 850 kg Swedish plutonium under strict surveillance. If terrorists could get hold of it it as sufficient the amount of one hundred atomic bombs. No one knows what will happen with it.

This remind me of Bible turning swords into plowshares.
Tullio

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This remind me of Bible turning swords into plowshares.
Tullio

Yes Tullio, if some countries should choose to do it as well.
Dalla spada all'aratro!

Thorium-based nuclear power plants will end up with us all dependant on China as that's where most of it is ... Is that a good idea with what there doing in the South China sea ?!!!!

Known high-grade occurrences of Thorium include Australia, India, Norway, the USA and Canada.

World thorium reserves IAEA estimates.
India 21%
Australia 19%
USA 13%

Thank's Jann I wasn't aware we had so much , I'm thinking thou Most of the known reserves are still in China just there Thorium is of the lower grade however they have many more times than there is the high grade ores and Thorium reactors if used to replace all the gas and coal fired ones would still need the Chineese ores in the long run ?

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It would be sufficient to dismantle nuclear warheads made from plutonium and mix the plutonium with natural uranium to provide fuel to all existing reactors for many years.
Tullio

true but it's still a finite resource and I think we can do better fusion would do it I just think using Hydrogen is the wrong fuel H3 is easier and I'm shore it's already been proven only problem is there is no natural H3 .

Except space , the moon has plenty all we need is the infrastructure to be able to get it .

Yes Bob I got fission and fusion mixed up hehehehe hope the above straightens it out .

If maybe all the current $$$$ being spent on fusion reactors was combined into a single plan we mite just have enough to build the infrastructure to mine and collect H3 !!!

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On the other hand the amount of funding that Fusion research has received in the USA since 1953 is around $30 Billion total

Is that Government money or private money .

There is a lot of money being spent on Fusion in other Country's so maybe the US mite wish to start spending a bit more .

If they where smart then they would use N.A.S.A to start building the equipment to get H3

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I'm all for deuterium fusion reactors.

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