Skip to main content

Stop Designing Reactors!

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Thorium Energy for the World
  • 2129 Accesses

Abstract

In the first nuclear era the reactor physicist designs the reactor, and then everyone else designs and builds a nuclear energy system around it. This design philosophy is the failure of the first nuclear era. People want to consume energy that is reliable, cheap, safe, sustainable, and clean. Instead of designing reactors, we need to be thinking primarily about the design of the nuclear energy system as a whole. This message is going to be rather unpopular with physicists.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 169.00
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 219.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Laurie .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland

About this paper

Cite this paper

Laurie, J. (2016). Stop Designing Reactors!. In: Revol, JP., Bourquin, M., Kadi, Y., Lillestol, E., de Mestral, JC., Samec, K. (eds) Thorium Energy for the World. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26542-1_81

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics