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I'm very glad that I can be here again.
This is my third time that I've been able to join a TEAC conference.
It is my great pleasure to talk about the recent situation
of the molten salt reactor activity in Japan.
I'd also like to say also thank you again,
to all of you that have thought about the very difficult
situation in Japan, caused by the huge earthquake.
Not only the earthquake but also the tsunami,
we received last year during March 2011.
Japan is now getting back to its previous position,
of course - there are still several problems,
but we are having hope and look toward the future.
When we talk about the topic of nuclear power,
the situation has drastically changed
comparing before and after Fukushima.
Of course safety is a very, very, important issue,
and we have 50 available nuclear power plants,
but all of them are shut down.
There are discussions to restart some of the qualified reactors,
in view of safety considerations,
but that is not yet decided.
We expect that maybe in a week or two weeks
it will be decided by the Japanese government.
There are also other discussions. There are people thinking,
are there other types of nuclear power plant,
that have much safer characteristics?
We also are thinking that
as far as we use nuclear power,
for electricity generation -
there is still the remaining
subject of spent nuclear fuel.
If we use a uranium fuel,
it becomes hard to handle due to
the radioactive waste generated, including the plutonium.
For the case of using thorium,
the production of plutonium is
less than that produced by uranium fuel,
but anyway we have fission products, and so on.
What we have to think about is
how to take care of the issue of spent nuclear fuel?
Thorium reactors allow incineration of the spent nuclear fuel,
Also, if we then continue to use molten salt reactors,
we will be able to reduce our production of radioactive waste.
It is for these reasons
why the molten salt reactor is
able to be discussed in Japan.
There are the books that I have written in Japan -
I'm sorry, but they have only been written in japanese. I wish you could read Japanese, but
I wrote this book
before Fukushima,
and at that time
not many people paid attention to thorium nuclear power.
but after Fukushima -
these are not my books,
but these are the very famous
economic journals, and magazines which
are very well known by businessmen.
The direction of
each journal is very different.
One journal is named [?],
and they focused on the anti-nuclear argument.
But, after they featured me,
and after I explained what is a thorium molten salt reactor,
and what is the difference between it
and our current light water reactors,
their attitude became
completely different.
They wanted to promote nuclear power.
They featured
a thorium molten salt reactor.
After these journals were published,
I also wrote another book, and this book was published
just one year after the Fukushima accident.
I've also been featured in TV and radio programs in Japan,
and Japan has a western and eastern part,
and one of the most famous cities in the western part,
is Osaka,
and that is my home town.
The left-hand side shows you a TV program which,
is popular throughout the city.
And to tell the truth,
the host for this show generally only discusses renewable energy sources.
they are generally very anti-nuclear.
But, I was also featured in this show.
On that show, I was the only man to talk about nuclear power.
On the right hand side is a radio show,
which broadcasts to Tokyo and its surrounding area.
This man is named
[?],
he is a one of the famous
science coulmnists.
He also
had a
comment
on the [NHK?]
(this is a broadcasting company in Japan)
He also wrote a brief recommendation of my book
in a famous Japanese newspaper,
which name is [?-Nikki].
Here is another example of a TV program,
But, the background of this program is
a little bit sad.
Just one day before
I was invited to this TV show,
there was a suicide in Japan.
I can not talk in detail about this suicide,
but it was a man,
and when he retired
in March,
from the [?]
[?] prefecture,
there was a small amount of thorium
in his bag.
And, after he retired
from [?] prefecture,
he found that
in his house there was thorium.
Last year there was a similar
discussion about thorium,
and some some people say that
"thorium is very good",
but there are other people, "Oh, thorium is very dangerous,
because this is radioactive materials".
Of course, ordinary people do not know, what is thorium.
So then,
this man thought that,
"I'm doing a very bad thing.
What can I do?"
And so he committed suicide
with his wife.
I was very sad.
So then, when I was invited to this TV show,
I carefully
explained to the people
thorium, is of course
a radioactive material.
If we do not take care
when handling these materials,
then it would be able to
cause us some health issues.
But, if instead we
understand what is thorium,
then we don't have
to commit suicide.
And, I also informed them that thorium
would be available
for nuclear fuel and that it would provide
not only Japan but also in the world.
I was invited to lectures, such was held in this March of 2012, which was just 3 months ago.
On the left hand slide, this is a lecture which was
held by the Hyogo prefecture.
This is one of several public discussions.
On the right-hand side is a lecture
which was organized by
the Shizuoka prefecture.
The Shizuoka prefecture is a very important prefecture in Japan,
Because, within this prefecture there is a
nuclear power plant which is named Hamaoka.
This is owned by
two electric power companies.
And, recently this prefecture
ordered that the
Hamaoka nuclear power plant is important,
The reason why is because this area
is expected to be the heart of the next huge earthquake.
Talking here,
is Mr. Kawakatsu,
the governor of Shizuoka prefecture.
After the Fukushima accident,
he began to think about
how they can take care of the Hamaoka nuclear power plant.
and he begins to learn about the thorium molten salt reactor,
and he studied about its safety features,
and he also learns that the thorium molten salt reactor is also able to
incinerate current spent nuclear fuel.
He then decided to
invite me,
to give a lecture on thorium molten salt reactors.
Local governments of the city of Kyoto -
I'm currently living and working in the city of Kyoto -
Kyoto also has
a university which is "Kyoto University".
This is the home ground for
Japanese research activity
on thorium and
molten salt reactors.
This is a man who's name is Akiro Kobayashi,
He brought up a
question to the local government.
What do you think about using thorium molten salt
reactors for providing
local electricity
within Kyoto city?
The mayor of Kyoto is Mr. Kadokawa,
he answered, of course we understand the thorium molten salt reactor is available,
But it is still in it's R&D phase.
Kyoto city, can not make any commitment
to promote research and development,
but they carefully
watch the progress
of the R&D of thorium molten salt reactors.
The Japanese government did not
pay much attention to thorium molten salt reactors, but
just the before I came to this meeting,
on the 18th of May, so just two weeks ago, one of the senators phoned me
and he said that
he would like to have a lecture
on the subject of thorium molten salt reactors.
But, the purpose
is to determine whether if the molten salt reactor
is useful for
incinerating their spent nuclear fuel.
The date for that is not yet fixed, but
maybe when I go back to Japan
there will be an invitation
and the lecture will be held -
maybe within this June.
What are the two electric companies doing
to protect against future
earthquakes and tsunamis at the Hamaoka nuclear power plant?
If you look at this picture you will see
a huge wall here -
and this is me.
I was invited to this power plant
just two weeks ago.
They are now constructing very huge
walls to surround the nuclear power plant.
Of course, the purpose of the walls is to protect
against the attack of a tsunami.
They have also prepared a lot of additional power supplies,
such as diesel engines.
These engines are located within the reactor building.
They also prepared some smaller diesel engines, which are on the roof.
These are greater than 30 m above the sea level.
They have also prepared an additional protecting panel,
around the sea pump.
Can you see these numbers?
This is 15 m from sea level, and
this is 20 m from sea level.
There are other heavy-industry machines as well,
which are used to open a path when an earthquake causes damage.
This is also an electricity generator,
it is a transportable gas turbine generator.
What is surprising is this.
This is an example of a TV news program.
Chubu Electric Power Co. Ltd., announced they established institute at the site of Hamaoka nuclear power plant for enhancing safety of nuclear power.
Did you see Hamaoka?
Hamaoka is the Hamaoka nuclear power plant.
This is the news which I saw yesterday,
and what they are saying is
the two electric power companies decided to
make a research center dedicated to the issue of nuclear power plant safety.
They had a research institute in their head office at Nagoya but the new institute is located at the site of nuclear power plant to collaborate with the workers of site.
Today, Mr. Mizutani, a director of Hamaoka nuclear power plant, visited the Mayor of Omaezaki, the location of Hamaoka nuclear plant. He reported to the Mayor the establishing of new research institute.
Research themes are enhance safety of existing nuclear power, new energy source such as thorium molten-salt reactor (MSR), new recycling technology of spent nuclear fuel.
Would you please take a look at these 4 characters?
These 4 characters - this is "thorium".
It's very intersting that
the purpose of this research center
includes the use of thorium as a future fuel,
and they also plan
to develop advanced nuclear reactors,
which includes molten salt reactors.
Could you hear the sound of "thorium"?
If you go back to your room
and you browse the name of the [?] electric power company
and research center,
you will find some English news from the [?] newspapers.
This concludes my introduction about the recent situation
regarding thorium molten salt reactors in Japan.
I'd like to briefly mention about what I am working on in Japan.
What I'm doing is developing
transportable, very small, molten salt reactors.
I'm going to produce electricity,
but their capacity will be around 1 to 10 MW.
This is a thermal reactor using a graphite moderator.
It has been pointed out,
that as far as we use of graphite as a moderator in a reactor core,
there may be an issue with the positive reactivity coefficient.
We are going to avoid this problem by having a small size reactor core,
with additional mechanical treatments.
This reactor does not achieve a large conversion ratio.
This will not be a breeder reactor.
I am also carrying on other research on the ADS,
So, obtaining fuel is not a concern at this point.
At the moment, the reactor is designed to be provided
with external U-233 fissile material.
The details of this project are unavailable at this point as the project is still under development.
My collegues in Japan have already simulated the reactor core,
and they believe that the characterization results of the simulation should be available this June of 2012.
In order to develop this kind of transportable small reactor,
I organized an R&D team made up of my colleagues.
This team was established in two years ago from now,
and in the beginning of our project we obtained a research grant
in order to make transportable
molten salt reactors.
Last year we created a conceptual design for a transportable molten salt reactor,
and in this year, we are preparing the calculations, code and so on.
This is just my wish, but
perhaps we would like to adjust the specification of the prototype reactors,
If it is possible, we would like to fabricate the prototype reactor two years from now.
If it is possible, we would like to provide a commercial reactor in 2020.
But, we are unable to predict the schedule accurately over this long time span.
The most important issue is that thorium itself does not have fissionable isotopes.
Perhaps two years ago, I showed you these pictures.
The left-hand side indicates a uranium fuel cycle,
Because, uranium - including the fissionable isotope U-235,
it is available to be used as a nuclear fuel,
only by using natural uranium.
But for the case of the thorium fuel cycle,
we do not have any fissile isotopes from natural resources,
So, we have to prepare them by using a producer, such as an ADS or something like that.
Or, another possibility is
we can use the plutonium which comes from the spent fuel of the uranium fuel cycle.
We also have to complete
quantitative evaluations.
This is a preliminary calculation which I did about two years ago,
but luckily the data has not really changed since then.
If the total capacity (and number of plants) for the uranium fuel cycle
continues to increase as shown up until the year 2050,
maybe the capacity of plants using the uranium fuel cycle will become
three times larger than we have today.
But, if we use the plutonium coming from the uranium fuel cycle,
then the capacity of the thorium molten salt reactor would reach only about 400 GWe.
Because of the influence of Fukushima
nuclear power plant accident,
it is possible that the capacity of the uranium fuel power plants will not increase.
If this occurs, then the capacity for plants using the thorium fuel cycle will be greatly reduced.
What we have to think about then,
is how we can get additional fissile material.
But, the question can be modified.
How can we get neutrons?
In critical reactors
and sub-critical reactors,
we use the neutrons which come from the fission reactions.
Of course, the fusion reaction will be available to get neutrons,
and spallation is also very, very attractive.
Also, neutrons are available
from the deuteron-beryllium reaction.
People know that the efficiency of the D-Be reaction is
not very high compared to the spallation reaction.
The key is "accelerator",
in my story.
We would like to provide reliable, stable, efficient
and of course, cheap
accelerators.
This is our proposal which is named the "Mitrailleuse Accelerator".
If you look at the front of this room,
you will see two posters, and much detail is described here.
Neutron providers.
What's interesting is you will see,
there are many tubes and
each of them are
independent accelerator tubes.
This provides the flat neutrons.
at the end of each accelerator tube.
Another additional good point is that
the neutron generation rate can be controlled for each accelerator tube,
so we can control the spatial distribution of the neutron flux.
This is one figure of our preliminary design of the ADS using Mitrailleuse accelerator.
Here, this is a pressurized PWR-type reactor core,
and from the left-hand side, and right-hand side,
neutrons will be induced to the PWR core.
Of course, we understand that there will be several challenges.
In order to achieve this kind of design.
Because the neutron is induced externally,
from outside of the reactor vessel, we have to evaluate
the effect of the neutron radiation damage.
We are now constructing a factory at Fukushima,
and that is expected to be completed next year.
and the first neutron beam based design should be available in 2014.
These are the schematic designs for our new factories -
this - and this.
These are our accommodation rooms.
So, if you want, you can come to visit our factory.
This accelerator may be
available to put inside of the nuclear power plant.
The purpose of this plant is to incinerate the spent nuclear fuel.
And, if we put thorium fuel here,
it generates U-233
which can be fed into
the thorium molten salt reactors.
We're discussing if this could be made available
for a Japanese electricity company.
such as [?] electric companies.
But, of course they will have similar problems,
so maybe it may not be so easy.
We have already published a paper.
You can find it on the internet or you can call me.
That is all. Thank you very much.
We have time to take one or two questions.
I would like you to comment regarding all of the reactor shutdowns in Japan...[distorted]
What are your thoughts about shutting down all the reactors in Japan?
Of course, I wish that that the available nuclear power plants
which [?] should be restarted.
But, the Japanese people
do not want to continue to use nuclear power.plants.
So, the capacity of the light water reactor may be gradually reducing.
But, if we can develop the thorium molten salt reactor,
which may take more than 10 years,
or 50 years.
In the middle of that estimate is 2020.
We may be able to provide additional nuclear energy
by using thorium molten salt reactors.
[distorted]
He is asking
if there is enough power generation capacity in Japan.
What are you guys doing without nuclear power.
What we are doing is to run our supplemental
combustion based generators.
Their fuel is natural gas.
I think this is very, very dangerous.
because these supplemental plants are supposed to be for reserve power.
They are not designed to be run full time
and all day throughout the year.
Also, the price of natural gas increases.
I do not think continuing the shutdown is a good decision.
We should rethink this -
maybe in this year or next year.
In your last slide you had pictures for designs of Fukushima
when do you propose to complete that, and is it a demonstration plant?
You mean the last slide before the conclusion. Right.
That is a conceptual schematic diagram.
To tell the truth, we don't have any completed accelerator.
It may be available two years from now,
and before it is completed, we have to discuss it with
electric companies
Once we can get some agreement
it will be a demonstration plant.
As I introduced in my presentation, in the case of the [?]
power company they
have established a research center.
This is a kind of reasearch they would encourage,
so I think this demonstration will be available.
Very good. Let's thank Takashi again.