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2025 ANS Winter Conference & Expo
November 9–12, 2025
Washington, DC|Washington Hilton
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Shifting the paradigm of supply chain
Chad Wolf
When I began my nuclear career, I was coached up in the nuclear energy culture of the day to “run silent, run deep,” a mindset rooted in the U.S. Navy’s submarine philosophy. That was the norm—until Fukushima.
The nuclear renaissance that many had envisioned hit a wall. The focus shifted from expansion to survival. Many utility communications efforts pivoted from silence to broadcast, showcasing nuclear energy’s elegance and reliability. Nevertheless, despite being clean baseload 24/7 power that delivered a 90 percent capacity factor or higher, nuclear energy was painted as risky and expensive (alongside energy policies and incentives that favored renewables).
Economics became a driving force threatening to shutter nuclear power. The Delivering the Nuclear Promise initiative launched in 2015 challenged the industry to sustain high performance yet cut costs by up to 30 percent.
Wenyu Cheng, Jie Liang, Mingjun Zhang, Fei Wei, Jinglin Li, Xiaochong Xue, Youshi Zeng, Ke Deng, Qin Zhang, Wei Liu
Nuclear Science and Engineering | Volume 197 | Number 7 | July 2023 | Pages 1534-1544
Technical Paper | doi.org/10.1080/00295639.2022.2158020
Articles are hosted by Taylor and Francis Online.
Large amounts of tritium will inevitably be produced during operation from the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) fueled by lithium salt, which is detrimental to the human body. Therefore, it is necessary to evaluate the radiation dose of the generated tritium. The tritium production, emission, and radiation dose of TMSRs were estimated by numerical calculation. According to this study, a 2-MW(thermal) TMSR produces 3.33E+14 Bq·yr−1 of tritium, discharges 2.42E+13 Bq·yr−1 of tritium, and causes 1.06 μSv·yr−1 of radiation dose. A 30-MW(thermal) TMSR produces 5.00E+15 Bq·yr−1 of tritiu.m, discharges 3.62E+14 Bq·yr−1 of tritium, and causes 2.02 μSv·yr−1 of radiation dose. A 2250-MW(thermal) TMSR produces 3.75E+17 Bq·yr−1 of tritium, discharges 2.77E+16 Bq·yr−1 of tritium, and causes 79 μSv·yr−1 of radiation dose. The radiation dose of TMSRs is much less than 1 mSv·yr−1, which is the dose limit for internal recruitment in China. It is determined that TMSRs are safe for humans regarding tritium hazard.
