Thorium

When a thorium reactor is started a mixture of sodium fluoride and a small amount of thorium fluoride is heated to the melting point of about 1,000 degrees Celsius. A small amount of uranium 233 is added and this causes the thorium to decay into more U 233 which releases a large amount of heat. The reaction is self sustaining in that when it gets hotter it expands and the neutrons are less likely to hit one another and the temperature drops at which time the number of hits increase and the temperature rises. New thorium is added as needed and the reaction will continue until the thorium feed stops. If anything interferes with the feed the plant will shut down. The heat is then transferred to a loop (heat exchanger) where it heats helium gas to high pressure which is used to drive the turbines to make electric power. There is so much heat left over that it can be used to desalt sea water. These plants operate at regular atmospheric temperature so there is no need for very large containment dome meaning the plants themselves can be manufacture in an assembly line manner in modules. A 300 MW reactor would fit on a flatbed truck and weigh about 15 tons. This could power 300,000 homes. For larger cities reactors would be hooked together. A 1,000 MW plant requires one square mile of space. By comparison the same size power plant using wind requires 250 square miles. Reactors could be sent to isolated areas to desalt water for agricultural use. Almost free electrical energy with few mining and/or disposal products and zero carbon.