Green ammonia - thorium as the energy source

[@chrisjohns9631]

Doable, safe and possible doesn't matter at all to politicians and investors. All they care about is profit and dividends. This is the challenge you need to overcome.

[@CopenhagenAtomics]

Agree! Price is VERY important in the enegy sector and especially with 90% of the energy customers, who are in asia and africa. We target $20 per MWh LCOE. (electric)

[@aleksanderscernjavic9009]

Commercial ships could be one of the potential investors as far as I can think of as also the "luxury" ship/yacht builders like Lürssen, Heesen, Amels, Oceano, Fincantieri,...imagine combining molten salt reactors combined with battery storage, so it could either run fully on the reactor or on hybrid...and with as powerful as it could be it could be moving the yacht and at the same time charge the batteries...same goes for tankers, perhaps Maersk or similar...Lufthansa is investing in their own sectors, not giving that much care on green env with such projects which benefit them ono both sides (mostly their own projects)...instead they could be investing more into the E-fuel sector to build the portable and scalable CO2 capturing containers which are now also producing E-fuel at the same time, I think last year or so they succeeded to put everything in a ship container, so capturing and production..big names in the maritime sector have quite some cash, if you sell it to them how much more efficient their ships could be, they will do the dirty work instead of you of legalizing reactors in such ships ;)

[@CopenhagenAtomics]

You mention a lot of things which people have already thought about for some time. But it would be more interesting if you wrote them down and try to review which one is most likely to happen from an economic and risk perspective. This is what changes the world. Low risk solutions with good economic return. Many people ignore this. E.g. batteries have been around for 100+ years, but they are only used in certain applications, because their economics has limitations. Why do many people continue to ignore this? CO2 capture is the same story. Who can capture CO2 at a lower cost than plants...?

[@Al3xki]

If you can produce the reactors at the price and cost needed, why wouldn't you skip a step and stick them in a ship, ala Seaborg or Russian Icebreakers, instead? Also, why are you making your lives harder with Thorium? Just build the same reactor with a Uranium fuel cycle. You can always switch to Thorium later. The benefits of using a fuel the industry is familiar with would really de-risk this project.

[@CopenhagenAtomics]

We actually see thorium as much lower risk than uranium. It is easy to buy and work with thorium and it is an excellent nuclear fuel. Thus it is simply not true what you suggest that thorium is higher risk. Also note that Copenhagen Atomics reactors can easily be placed on a barge or an icebreaker. But look at the world around you. Less than 0.1% of today's energy production is on barges or icebreakers. It is simply not the most common application out there. However green ammonia plants could easily be 20% of all nuclear reactors in the world by 2040. Please note that you cannot make a breeder reactor without thorium in the thermal spectrum. Also note that the waste stream from waste burners is orders of magnitude better than for uranium reactors. Thus thorium is simply the superb option.

[@Al3xki]

@@CopenhagenAtomics Actually, I meant why not use them do drive the ship's propulsion. A big advantage will be in speed, currently container ships limit their speed to be more efficient, with nuclear propulsion goods would move faster and a single ship could do more work giving it a market advanatge. You can always start with Ammonia production for fertiliser of course, there is a big market either way. Wrt Thorium, I forgot you are going for a thermal breeder. The extraction of transuranics from spent nuclear fuel is a well-understood process. Though there is a a history of poor performance in such facilities. At least you avoid enrichment.

[@stanmitchell3375]

Put a reactor in the ship

[@KG-1]

It continues to escape me why Denmark's giant neighbor to the south can't seem to break it's dogma on nuclear power and pour resources into making Thorium MSRs happen, especially with impact of the Russo-Ukraine War. These help solve 3 giant current problems: water, food , and energy. PWR nuke is giant waste and a complete dead end. CA: mycket lyka till! Hope you guys are at TEAC 11 in October.

[@CopenhagenAtomics]

Yes we will be at TEAC 11 in October and at the ORNL MSR workshop too.