[cstross]

Please explain how you would design a thorium reactor to produce 238Pu suitable for use in RTGs.

Please explain how you would build a shiny new thorium reactor with 238Pu production capability on a budget competitive with the existing DoE 237Np -> 238Pu transmutation process in an existing research reactor.

[jb55]

Take a look at http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/downloads/plutonium-238... for how it could be done

[psswrdshmashwrd]

Please see: Liquid fluoride thorium reactor

[jobu]

The wikipedia page doesn't say much about Pu-238, but there is this under the "Proliferation resistance" bullet:

"...LFTRs produce very little plutonium, around 15 kg per gigawatt-year of electricity (this is the output of a single large reactor over a year). This plutonium is also mostly Pu-238..."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reacto...

In a LFTR the fuels are dissolved in liquid salts, so the downside is it may be very difficult to separate out the Pu-238 for use.

[humbleMouse]

Yeah, weird why that is getting down-voted.

[PhantomGremlin]

It should get down-voted.

The original post was two words. Okay, cute. But then the subsequent "explanation" was four words.

There should have been at least a sentence or two of explanation. At the minimum there could have been a link to Wikipedia. That's common courtesy.

Most people don't come to HN to spend decades learning obscure things, very slowly, from Zen masters.