New Toshiba “micro-reactors”?
I’ve seen this popping up on a few news sites and blogs today… But I’ve heard nothing about it from any credible source.
Toshiba Builds 100x Smaller Micro Nuclear Reactor
Is this for real, a rumor, or a hoax? It looks to share many common features with the Toshiba 4S technology, but looks quite different, too.
Using Lithium-6 as a neutron absorption medium is a seemingly interesting choice – this will certainly capture neutrons, but produce Tritium like nothing else! Usually, the Lithium added to LWR coolant for pH control is specifically chosen to be depleted in Li-6, so as to prevent tritium formation – using Lithium-6 in nuclear engineering is nothing new, but it is usually confined to applications where significant Tritium production is the desired outcome – usually for nuclear weapons use.
Does anybody have any credible news concerning this announcement?
Physical Insights 
That caught my attention as well. Using lithium-6 would produce lots and lots of tritium. Actually, that’s how they produce tritium in general.
For general purpose neutron absorption there’s no reason to go to li-6 unless you want to make tritium. Generally you’d use boron-10 or maybe cadmium or hafnium.
All I can think: Perhaps the goal is to increase energy in some way? Tritium does not produce much energy in terms of decay but maybe that combined with the fissioning of Li-6 into he4 ad H3? I don’t think that produces much extra energy, compared to boron neutron capture. It’s all I can think of..
That is, unless they want to make tritium as a biproduct.
Drbuzz0
December 20, 2007 at 3:54 am
Why isn’t this on the Toshiba website? Am I missing something?
Stewart Peterson
December 21, 2007 at 5:55 pm
Stewart, that’s what I don’t understand. There’s no mention of it from any credible or official source. Is it a hoax, a rumor somebody has picked up, or a misunderstanding?
enochthered
December 23, 2007 at 11:00 am