IPAC2013 - List of Authors (Bowman, C.)

Paper	Title	Page
THPWA047	GEM*STAR - New Nuclear Technology to Produce Inexpensive Diesel Fuel from Natural Gas and Carbon	3738
	R.P. Johnson, F. Marhauser Muons. Inc., USA C. Bowman, R.B. Vogelaar ADNA, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA
	The 75,000 tons of US stored spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from conventional nuclear reactors is a resource that could provide 125 years of all US electrical power. Or it could also provide a great amount of process heat for many applications like producing green diesel fuel from natural gas and renewable carbon. An accelerator system like the SNS at ORNL can provide neutrons to convert SNF into fissile isotopes to provide high temperature heat using technology developed at the ORNL Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. In the GEMSTAR accelerator-driven subcritical reactor that we wish to build, the accelerator allows subcritical operation (no Chernobyls), the molten salt fuel allows volatiles to be continuously removed (no Fukushimas), and the SNF does not need to be enriched or reprocessed (to minimize weapons proliferation concerns). The molten salt fuel and the relaxed availability requirements of process heat applications imply that the required accelerator technology is available now. A new opportunity has arisen to use GEMSTAR to reduce the world’s inventory of weapons-grade plutonium leaving only remnants that are permanently unusable for nuclear weapons. * Charles D. Bowman et al., “GEM*STAR: The Alternative Reactor Technology Comprising Graphite, Molten Salt, and Accelerators,” Handbook of Nuclear Engineering, Springer (2010).

Paper

Title

Page

GEM*STAR - New Nuclear Technology to Produce Inexpensive Diesel Fuel from Natural Gas and Carbon

3738

R.P. Johnson, F. Marhauser
Muons. Inc., USA
C. Bowman, R.B. Vogelaar
ADNA, Los Alamos, New Mexico, USA

The 75,000 tons of US stored spent nuclear fuel (SNF) from conventional nuclear reactors is a resource that could provide 125 years of all US electrical power. Or it could also provide a great amount of process heat for many applications like producing green diesel fuel from natural gas and renewable carbon. An accelerator system like the SNS at ORNL can provide neutrons to convert SNF into fissile isotopes to provide high temperature heat using technology developed at the ORNL Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. In the GEM*STAR accelerator-driven subcritical reactor that we wish to build, the accelerator allows subcritical operation (no Chernobyls), the molten salt fuel allows volatiles to be continuously removed (no Fukushimas), and the SNF does not need to be enriched or reprocessed (to minimize weapons proliferation concerns). The molten salt fuel and the relaxed availability requirements of process heat applications imply that the required accelerator technology is available now. A new opportunity has arisen to use GEM*STAR to reduce the world’s inventory of weapons-grade plutonium leaving only remnants that are permanently unusable for nuclear weapons.
* Charles D. Bowman et al., “GEM*STAR: The Alternative Reactor Technology Comprising Graphite, Molten Salt, and Accelerators,” Handbook of Nuclear Engineering, Springer (2010).