• Photonic@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    Well, most of the time you would be right indeed. Uranium fuel rods are solid. But in a molten-salt reactor the fissile material is actually dissolved in molten salt, so it is a solution!

    The more you know!

      • Photonic@lemmy.world
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        23 hours ago

        Nope, they’re less expensive too because they don’t need to operate at high pressures like PWRs, so they don’t need a whole containment structure around it to keep the pressure in and they are more efficient because they can run at higher temperatures.

        Research is expensive, but once that’s done (which we are nearing), the life cycle costs are lower with increased efficiency.