Clean electricity, cheap electricity, safe electricity

For $500 per kilowatt, taking two years to build, we can mass produce the much-simpler LFTR in factories. This is a good size for Australia, with a big export market and is 100 megawatt reactor units, instead of the gigawatt behemoths common overseas. This:

• develops Australian heavy manufacturing capacity;
• means cheaper, better, safer faster than bigger units; and
• reduces risk for both buyer and seller.

Converting existing powerplants can be done at low cost to any other alternative - we’re only changing the heat source, and keeping the rest. This includes the turbines, the switch yard, and the power supply contracts. The conversion would then work out to $300/kilowatt.

For a concrete example, consider Hazelwood, in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley. At 1,600 megawatts of electrical output (PDF 2.83MB), it would take 16 100-megawatt LFTR core units to convert. Total cost $572 million: this is $36 million per core including spark plug. This would remove 17.6 million tonnes of annual emissions permanently, at just over $4.90 per tonne of avoided carbon.

What is LFTR worth to the coal industry?

About $40 dollars per tonne dug out of the ground.

The LFTR operates hot enough to supply what is called “process heat”, which can be used to upgrade coal to higher, more profitable grades. This can push coal upgrading to new heights, reducing the upgraded coal’s ultimate emissions by 20-25 per cent.

One tonne of Victorian brown coal, which is 50-60 per cent water, can be turned into 400 kilos of high grade black coal. Low-grade black coal, 20-30 per cent water (PDF 55KB), shows a similar gain on upgrading.

Since coal-fired power generation currently makes up 80 per cent of Australia’s generating capacity, that’s 11 tonnes per head of annual emissions that are avoided by converting existing coal plants. The coal previously burned can then be upgraded and exported, displacing a further 2.2 tonnes per head of Australian population (45.4 million tonnes annual emissions avoided by coal upgrading).

That is at least 140 million tonnes of upgraded, high-grade, coal product is exported instead of burned amounting to an extra $5.5 billion annually.

What is LFTR worth to the power industry?

About $10 per megawatt-hour of electricity generated.

High-temperature operation means more efficient power generation. For example, Callide C power station, in Biloela, Queensland, operates at a thermal efficiency of 39 per cent. That means, for every megawatt-hour generated, it has to get rid of 1.6 megawatt-hours of waste heat. Callide C uses cooling towers, consuming 1,500 litres of fresh water for every megawatt-hour sent to the grid.

By contrast, the LFTR runs at a thermal efficiency of 44 per cent (DOC 3.1MB), using dry cooling - much like your car’s radiator, on a slightly bigger scale. Like your car, a LFTR can be put where it is needed. An existing water-using power station, after being converted, can then sell the water it used to draw.