Energy Crisis Solution on the Way; A Cold War Airplane Technology Can Serve the Planet!

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Energy is the sole important need of man today and tomorrow.  With the world population increasing at an alarming speed, it is not wrong to say that in a 20 years' time the current supply of energy will suffice the only half of the world population. If we do not give energy solution the highest priority it will soon be very late.

Fossil fuels could come handy but they burn to exude poisonous fumes and climate disaster that threaten millions. Moreover, their reservoirs will run out in a century or a little more.  Renewable energy like solar and the wind is no silver bullet solution. There should be reliable energy generation which is available on demand - something wind and solar can never do, said Kirk Sorensen, the CTO of nuclear energy startup Flibe Energy, as shares Energy Directory.

But we are fortunate of having a great technology used in Cold War-era airplane: NB-36H jet bomber known as "The Crusader." The plane worked with a nuclear reactor in its middle as part of Aircraft Nuclear Propulsion (ANP) program. From here the idea of "molten-salt reactor" took birth which was a radically new sort of plant.

The "molten-salt reactor" was abandoned by the US in the 1970s but today the engineer Sorensen and others are trying to revive the same plan and fuel it with thorium - a carbon-free energy.

The key importance of this nuclear-powered plane was to make it fly 15,000 miles without refueling.  

The US government in 1946 launched ANP as an effort to develop a nuclear-powered jet bomber. The physicist Alvin Weinberg, the inventor of light-water reactor (LWR), was well aware of the fact that LWR is not an ideal option for an airplane because it relies on uranium-235, solid nuclear fuel. If uranium is hit by a flying neutron, it can be torn, releasing energy and shooting neutrons. This process is called as "Fission."

Solid fuel holds risk because of possible "fission." So, Weinberg was left with no other options but "molten-salt reactor."  This reactor works in a different way than the other nuclear reactors. Instead of burning solid nuclear fuel, it dissolves nuclear fuel in a steady, blazing-hot fluid which increases the efficacy of nuclear fission. This results in burning up all the nuclear fuel and boosting energy output!

Seeing the efficiency of molten-salt reactor, Weinberg, and his team built the first ever small molten-salt reactor which is now in focus of Sorensen and others.

Developing nuclear power technology needs billions of dollars. Only the licensing process needs a huge struggle. The Department of Energy approximations are that licensing of a commercial molten-salt power plant will be possible till 2040 or 2050, Business Insider reported.

But the good news is ahead if gets built; the energy crisis of earth will no more be there! The human success will step on a new stage and the benefits will be tremendous.