Terrapower, LLC

The Invention Science Fund I LLC

Washington State University

Supercritical Technologies, Inc.

Terrapower Isotopes, LLC

Joshua C Walter

Roderick A Hyde

Lowell L Wood, Jr

Kevan D Weaver

Jon David McWhirter

Muriel Y Ishikawa

George Beedon Zimmerman

Thomas A Weaver

Ashok Odedra

Clarence T Tegreene

Charles Whitmer

Charles E Ahlfeld

David G McAlees

Robert C Petroski

Nathan P Myhrvold

John Rogers Gilleland

Pavel Hejzlar

Victoria Y H Wood

Ehud Greenspan

Ken Czerwinski

Benjamin L Goodrich

Nicholas W Touran

Kevin J Kramer

Thomas M Burke

Manuel Garcia-Perez

Tyler S Ellis

Jonatan Hejzlar

Pyoungchung Kim

Jesse R Cheatham, Iii

Anselmo T Cisneros, Jr

Bassem S El-Dasher

Jeffery F Latkowski

Matthew Targett

Brian C Kelleher

William M Kerlin

Robert Alan Corbin

Christopher J Johns

Anselmo T Cisneros

Charles Gregory Freeman

Steven A Wright

Mark R Werner

Ronald L Klueh

Ryan Abbott

James M Vollmer

Christopher A Martin

Philip M Schloss

Chal S Davidson

Brian C Johnson

Daniel Flowers

Mark A Havstad

Christopher Dunckley

Bao H Truong

Sean Marshall McDeavitt

William W Bowen

Steven R Kirkendall

Robert R Richardson

Samuel Scott Goodrich

Michael E Garrett

Yu-Chih Ko

K Michael Steer

Evan Terrell

Christopher P Dunckley

Brian Morris

Jesse R Cheatham

Dan Flowers

Ryan Jr Abbot

Jesse R Iii Cheatham

Jeffrey F Latkowski

Iii Jesse R Cheatham

Jon D Mcwhirter

Jr Lowell L Wood

Victoria YH Wood

Steve R Kirkendall

Sean M Mcdeavitt

Jon David Mcwhirter

This disclosure describes methods for manufacturing a radioisotope of actinium from an irradiated source material that includes thorium. The method includes storing the source material in a vessel to allow at least some of the source material to decay into actinium. The containment vessel is then injected with supercritical carbon dioxide and a ligand to form a metal complex of actinium. The actinium complex is then removed from the vessel without substantially removing any of the thorium from the vessel.

Separation of actinium from an irradiated source material including thorium

An integrated energy system includes a nuclear thermal plant situated on a nuclear site. The nuclear thermal plant produces thermal energy that is transported to a thermal energy storage system located outside the nuclear site. The thermal storage system is thermally coupled to a power generation system which is also remote to the nuclear site. By this arrangement, the nuclear thermal plant is isolated and decoupled from the power generation system. The nuclear thermal plant may supply thermal energy upwards of 800° C. or more to be stored at the thermal energy storage system until needed such as for industrial heat, power generation, or other uses. The thermal storage system is source agnostic, and one or more additional thermal energy generators, such as additional nuclear reactors, solar thermal plants, or other thermal energy generators can be coupled to a common thermal storage system and power generation system.

Thermal energy storage system connected to both a nuclear reactor and a power generator

An anti-proliferation technique is disclosed to reduce the likelihood of nuclear proliferation due to the use fissionable fuel salts. The technique includes doping the fuel salt with one or more elements (referred to herein as activation dopants) that, upon exposure to neutrons such as would occur in the fuel salt when a reactor is in operation, undergo a nuclear reaction to, directly or indirectly, form highly active 'protecting isotopes' (of the same element as the activation dopant or a different element). A sufficient mass of activation dopants is used so that the Figure of Merit (FOM) of the fuel salt is decreased to below 1.0 within some target number of days of fission. This allows the FOM of the fuel salt to be controlled so that the fuel becomes too dangerous to handle before to the creation of a significant amount of weaponizable isotopes.

Anti-proliferation safeguards for nuclear fuel salts

Embodiments of methods for improving mesophase pitch for carbon fiber production using supercritical carbon dioxide are described. The methods improve the relative amount and quality of mesophase pitch in feedstocks, such as coal tar, already having at least some mesophase pitch. One particular method includes performing a sCO2/toluene extraction on the coal tar to obtain a toluene insoluble fraction of the coal tar; mixing the toluene insoluble fraction with sCO2 to obtain a sCO2/toluene insoluble fraction mixture; and extruding the sCO2/toluene insoluble fraction mixture, thereby separating the sCO2 from the toluene insoluble fraction to obtain fibers of mesophase pitch.

Mesophase pitch for carbon fiber production using supercritical carbon dioxide

A method, system, and apparatus for the thermal storage of nuclear reactor generated energy including diverting a selected portion of energy from a portion of a nuclear reactor system to an auxiliary thermal reservoir and, responsive to a shutdown event, supplying a portion of the diverted selected portion of energy to an energy conversion system of the nuclear reactor system.

Method, system, and apparatus for the thermal storage of nuclear reactor generated energy

Targetry coupled separation refers to enhancing the production of a predetermined radiation product through the selection of a target (including selection of the target material and the material's physical structure) and separation chemistry in order to optimize the recovery of the predetermined radiation product. This disclosure describes systems and methods for creating (through irradiation) and removing one or more desired radioisotopes from a target and further describes systems and methods that allow the same target to undergo multiple irradiations and separation operations without damage to the target. In contrast with the prior art that requires complete dissolution or destruction of a target before recovery of any irradiation products, the repeated reuse of the same physical target allowed by targetry coupled separation represents a significant increase in efficiency and decrease in cost over the prior art.

Targetry coupled separations

The thermochemical conversion of biomass material to one or more reaction products includes generating thermal energy with at least one heat source, providing a volume of feedstock, providing a volume of supercritical fluid, transferring a portion of the generated thermal energy to the volume of supercritical fluid, transferring at least a portion of the generated thermal energy from the volume of supercritical fluid to the volume of feedstock, and performing a thermal decomposition process on the volume of feedstock with the thermal energy transferred from the volume of supercritical fluid to the volume of the feedstock in order to form at least one reaction product.

Method and system for performing thermochemical conversion of a carbonaceous feedstock to a reaction product

Disclosed embodiments include nuclear fission reactor cores, nuclear fission reactors, methods of operating a nuclear fission reactor, and methods of managing excess reactivity in a nuclear fission reactor.

Standing wave nuclear fission reactor and methods

This document describes methods for pretreating coal to create either a dried coal or a char product that is stable in the outdoor environment and is more efficient as a feedstock for gasification or other processes than the original coal. Embodiments of the methods include pulverizing and pelletizing the coal, and pretreating the coal pellets to obtain a stable pellet of either dried coal or a stable pellet of chared coal (coal char). The pellets created by the described methods have undergone deoxygenation and carbonization improving their handling and storage properties and, in some cases, energy density. Pore structures within the pellets are stabilized physically and chemically so that the uptake of moisture into dry coal, that leads to internal heat generation, is greatly reduced. Chars are also, therefore, stable against transitions from a dry state to a wet state and less prone to self-ignition.

Beneficiation of coal for storage, transportation, and gasification

Examples of a flexible pyrolysis system are provided that include at least one reaction chamber capable of pyrolyzing a combination of coal in a supercritical carbon dioxide (CO) atmosphere. The system includes a recuperating and condensing circuit that removes dissolved pyrolysis products from the supercritical COatmosphere and then recovers COfor reuse in the reaction chamber. The recuperating and condensing circuit includes multiple stages of recuperators and collectors that can be independently controlled in order to selectively fractionate the pyrolysis products. In addition, the pyrolysis reaction may be controlled to alter the pyrolysis products generated.

Flexible pyrolysis system and method

Growing community of inventors

Kirkland, WA, United States of America

Joshua C Walter