A New Molten-Salt Reactor Could Halve the Cost of Nuclear Power | MIT Technology Review

A New Molten-Salt Reactor Could Halve the Cost of Nuclear Power | MIT Technology Review

• Transatomic Power, an MIT spinoff, is developing a nuclear reactor that it estimates will cut the overall cost of a nuclear power plant in half. It’s an updated molten-salt reactor, a type that’s highly resistant to meltdowns. Molten-salt reactors were demonstrated in the 1960s at Oak Ridge National Lab
• Transatomic also modified the original molten-salt design to allow it to run on nuclear waste.
• A conventional reactor produces about 20 metric tons of high-level waste a year, and that material needs to be stored for 100,000 years. The 500-megawatt Transatomic reactor will produce only four kilograms of such waste a year, along with 250 kilograms of waste that has to be stored for a few hundred years.  [ emphasis added]
• Bringing the new reactor to market will be challenging. Although the basic idea of a molten-salt reactor has been demonstrated, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s certification process is set up around light-water reactors. The company will need the NRC to establish new regulations, especially since the commission must sign off on the idea of using less steel and concrete if the design’s safety features are to lead to real savings.[ emphasis added]

You can see the benefits.  So, why won't it be implemented?  Red tape.  Most likely, the regulators will listen to the incumbents in the industry and refuse to alter the regulations that would allow for the new design to reap the obvious benefits.