Bill Gates, Toshiba Team Up On Nuclear Reactor

What we REALLY need is to stop people from being paranoid at the mention of the word "nuclear". The next thing we need is fusion, not fission.

You gotta love Bill Gates for using his money on aiding humanity.

oh....my....god.... imagine! a high end 24", SLI, hexa ( most likely 12, or 24 by the time this is finished) laptop you NEVER HAVE TO PLUG IN, EVER! hummer electric cars! it will give a whole new meaning to green power! (green, uranium, get it?)

Toshiba said it is in preliminary discussions with TerraPower, a unit of Intellectual Ventures, a patent-holding concern partially funded by Mr. Gates. Intellectual Ventures, based in Bellevue, Wash., is run by a former Microsoft Corp. executive, Nathan Myhrvold.So the company that brought us HD-DVD is teaming up with the guy that thinks he has a solution for hurricane control and the patent trolls.

I'm not expecting this to go well.

This will be interesting. Consuming depleted uranium means that a lot less of radiation is involved. Provided it's safe and efficient this could be an alternative for fossil fuels and traditional nuclear power. Also it would also be a lot cheaper: natural uranium is about 99% depleted uranium while a tiny part of the rest is the type used in reactors today.
It's still radioactive, but in a much weaker way than U-235.

Uranium is both more abundant and longer lasting than fossil fuels. This can give us centuries of power without polluting, buying time to find even better energy alternatives

YES! They better actually do it. Why people are so scared of nuke plants confuses me. They are very safe. The chance of anything happening is the same chance a regular power plant blows up. It's a good alternative and its cheap. With improved nuke power this will be better.

I know why people are scared: Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, "The China Syndrome", however, the tech of nuclear power has improved tremendously. Safer and cleaner. The only way to keep up with power demand, and cut fossil fuel usage. Otherwise we stop using fossil fuels, and go back to living in caves. Only this time, we can't even have camp fires for fear of emitting too much CO2. Just sitting around in the dark, fighting over whatever rotted fruit fell off the nearest fruit tree that day.

As great as this invention could be, it still won't satisfy the left-wing nuts I'm sure of it.

Almost every other nuclear powered country except the US already deploys a method of recycling a vast majority (over 90%) of nuclear waste into once again usable uranium. The problem is that the process also filters out trace amounts of plutonium, which is a nasty p-word we like to ignore in this country on account of its explosive capabilities. It would be interesting to see what on earth they plan to do about that little element-that-could if we're dropping it into random holes in 3rd world countries.

Link to the TED video.
He doesn't get to it until about 13 minutes in or so
http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/bill_gates.html

So now we know what happens when bill gates is bored.

nuclear should be researched more, especially in using depleted uranium for this will lead to future advances of clean energy or "high efficient" energy. As far as being maintenance free and buried where no human can reach....... nothing should be "non human accessible" because if its going to run for 100 years you'll want to be able to service, upgrade, or build additional pylons for it.

Bill investing in a nuclear reactor? What if it gets a blue screen of death while buried?

I think we could do better. I think he could do better. Well maybe not. This does sound to me like a scheme proposed by a has been technology pioneer with too much bloody money. My only hope is that hopefully now all this cash hes been whording away will finally make it back into the hands of hardworking people.

lol a good BSOD equivalent for nuclear reactor would definitely change everything

Let's skip all those hybrids, electric, and fuel-cells, and go right into nuclear reactor cars. No re-fueling for years, that would be awesome!

Fallout 3 anyone?

actually as loong as it built comsuming delepted uranium and has a few fail safes (like humans cant pull it apart) it should be really good for cars

[citation][nom]... Also it would also be a lot cheaper: natural uranium is about 99% depleted uranium while a tiny part of the rest is the type used in reactors today.It's still radioactive, but in a much weaker way than U-235.Uranium is both more abundant and longer lasting than fossil fuels. This can give us centuries of power without polluting, buying time to find even better energy alternatives[/citation]

Uranium is not more abundant than fossil fuels.

And While U-235's half live is an order of magnitude shorter than U-238 (700million years vs 4Billion for U-238,) its relatively safe to handle in your hands.

Note the 3-states regarding U-235 content in Uranium Fuel:
Depleted Uranium: U-235 contend 0.711% per weight (What the bulk of US reactors run on, and are of the BWR type. Most other reactors use mildly enriched Uranium.)

The idea of a Nuclear Battery (not what's powering the Voyager space craft,) or Container Mounted has been around for a while (with the Japanese, and more specifically Toshiba beating the drum the hardest.) Other ideas have centered around using reactors designed for Naval use, which are typically designed with serious space constraints.

Anyway before I get to carried away, it's great news that Bill's parting with his hard earned for a project such as this. I know it will eventually become a reality (in the next 50 years I'd hope) as this will be the best solution for powering remote sites/towns, without the need for a constant stream of oil or gas. I'd be happy to have a Nuclear Reactor in a shipping container at the mine sit I work at. Beats the Several Thousand liters of Diesel we currently consume per hour... That's right Several Thousand Liters per Hour

So now, who in thier right mind lets a man who cant make a bug free OS now design a Nuke reactor.

Abandon Planet imo.

I'm all for nuclear cars, so long as the reactors are resilient enough to withstand even the violent wrecks that kill the occupants. I know its morbid, but we wouldn't want 'dirty bombs' driving everywhere...

I don't know very much about nuclear power so it is difficult for me to form an opinion. Mine main concerns are safety and nucelar waste.

I'm very happy Bill gates is funding something like this. we need more cheap energy.

I will give any one of you if you can legit describe what happened in 3- mile island without looking it up on wikipedia. Most of what people know is garbage. Nuke power is safe. The Navy operates these little things called nuclear-powered submarines and has never suffered a single nuclear reactor disaster.

A small fusion/fission reactor would be perfect for remote communities (such as much of Canada).

While we do need to get our wasteful energy use under control, this is a viable option. I especially like the idea of waste-free usage.

Bill, you're a mans man.

Yes with proper training and oversight nuke power is safe, cheap and very effective. I think if they can get this project up and running is the next best thing to full green energy (solar hydro etc) go Bill keep setting that bar high for rich people!!