HT3R
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The High-Temperature Teaching and Test Reactor Energy Research Facility (nicknamed HT3R, pronounced appropriately "heater") is a proposed $457 million massively multi-purpose energy research facility set to be located in Andrews, Texas. Research planned for the facility's laboratories is intended to cover a variety of issues relevant to Energy production (Hydrogen production, Electricity, and Fischer Tropsch-type fuels), Passive nuclear safety, power generation efficiency (Rankine cycle vs Brayton cycle), Nuclear proliferation, Nuclear waste transmutation, new Nuclear fuel cycles, neutron research for basic science such as is performed at the NIST center for neutron research (NCNR), water purification with the Waste heat from the reactor and shortages of people qualified in Nuclear engineering.
The project is a joint venture between several counties, businesses, and colleges:
Other key collaborators in the project are:
- University of Texas System
- University of Texas at Arlington
- University of Texas at Austin
- University of Texas at Dallas
- University of Texas at El Paso
- Sandia National Laboratory
- Thorium Power Inc.
According to statements at talks, the project has currently finished its pre-conceptual design phase in which the goals, overall facility design schematic, and cost have been assessed. The facility is now entering the conceptual engineering design phase.
The facility is scheduled to be constructed by late 2012. According to project directors it will be a unique teaching and test facility that will help train a new generation of scientists and engineers on how to safely operate new nuclear technologies that will generate electricity at efficiencies above 50%, with no green-house gases.
