Thorium Power Canada Inc.
A clean, safe, low cost, and reliable energy source
Thorium Power Canada Inc. offers a clean, green, safe and cost effective solution to the growing global energy requirements.
Through a partnership with DBI Century Fuels Inc., the company’s thorium reactor design provides a nuclear alternative to fossil fuel consumption, taking advantage of abundant and widely available thorium deposits.
The TPC Thorium Reactor has been in research & development since 1970. Due to the United States government opting for uranium over thorium as a nuclear fuel (due to the cold war and weapons grade plutonium waste), many Thorium based projects were halted.
Since then, the development of the TPC Thorium Reactor has continued and the company now has a construction ready thorium reactor based on a unique proprietary technology that is extremely scalable and offers an energy option at per kW-hr prices in the estimated 4 to 7 cent range, well below many of the common technologies used today. The TPC Thorium reactor can be built on a modular basis as small as 10MW in size with the option to upscale a facility to 100MW by linking the modular reactors together.
Thorium Power Canada Inc. is shaping the future of energy through a truly clean, sustainable and scalable energy solution.
Thorium is a naturally occurring element discovered in 1828 and named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
In nature, virtually all thorium is thorium-232, and has a half-life of about 14.05 billion years. It is estimated to be about four times more abundant than uranium in the Earth’s crust. Thorium was formerly used commonly as the light source in gas mantles and as an alloying material.
Many countries throughout the world are considering plans to use thorium for their nuclear power for its safety benefits and its abundance compared to uranium.
Thorium burns longer and at higher temperatures to achieve many efficiencies over other conventional fuels including more efficient fuel utilization, the elimination of packaging waste, and significant reduction of long-lived radioactive isotopes. One pound of Thorium will produce the same energy output as 300 lbs of Uranium and 3.5 million pounds of coal, without the environmental effects of coal in the atmosphere and the risks associated with Uranium generators and waste products. There is 90% less waste with a Thorium reactor with the little waste produced requiring storage for an average of 200 years versus the requirement to store spent Uranium for 10,000 years
Thorium Power Canada Inc., in partnership with DBI Century Fuels (“DBI”) has designed a class of Thorium reactors which have significant commercial advantages:
- TPC’s Thorium reactors are more efficient and faster to build than conventional nuclear reactors and other Thorium based reactors
- TPC’s reactors are a low cost, scalable, modular source of energy
- Thorium is an abundant world-wide resource
- TPC’s Thorium reactors reduce radioactive waste which has no use in nuclear weapons
The TPC Thorium Reactor is a one-of-a-kind technology whose modular design can achieve any output desired at significantly reduced capital and carrying costs. The cost to build a reactor is estimated at $2.0 million per MW and can be built in 18-24 months versus conventional reactors at 5-7 years.
Chilean Desalination Plant
Our planned 10 MW thorium reactor located in Copiapó, Chile consists of a core and reactor manufactured by DBI Operating Company in California. The balance of plant, including all buildings and required infrastructure will be constructed on site.
It is estimated that the TPC Thorium Reactor will provide enough power to produce 20 million litres per day at the desalination plant. This is the equivalent amount that would power 3500 homes.
An application for condition approval to build a demonstration reactor has been submitted to the Chilean Government.
Indonesia Power Project
Thorium Power Canada is presently preparing a proposal for the development of a 25 MW thorium reactor in Indonesia. This demonstration power project will provide electrical power to the country’s power grid.
http://www.thoriumpowercanada.com/
Corporate Vision
DBI/Century Fuels offers a clean, green, safe and cost effective nuclear solution to the energy crisis and global climate change.
Since the late 1960’s, Hector A. D’Auvergne, DBI’s founder, has been conducting research on the use of the element thorium as a primary nuclear fuel that has the potential to reduce and ultimately eliminate the need for uranium as a nuclear fuel. With the elimination of uranium from the nuclear fuel cycle, the potential for producing weapons-grade plutonium is also eliminated, thereby resulting in safe, single-use nuclear reactors that supply power at 4 to 7 cents per kilowatt-hour.
The company’s thorium reactor designs provide the world with a nuclear alternative to fossil fuel consumption enabling countries to take advantage of the abundant and widely available thorium deposits to achieve energy independence.
DBI’s goal on the nuclear front is and has been to create a means, within existing national and international laws, by which sovereign nations can obtain synthetic fuel by switching from 238U (Pu) to 232Th (233U), and by so doing create a truly clean, sustainable nuclear industry based upon modular reactors, and to eventually use existing nuclear waste stockpiles as start-up fuel to convert thorium into 233U, using DBI’s reactor process in larger installations.
Technology Overview
There is a vast difference between the use of thorium in conventional technology and its use in DBI technology. Thorium has been widely used as an added “blanket” in conventional reactors to help increase the availability of fissile fuel by breeding artificial uranium-233. Used in conventional reactors this way, thorium’s overall burn rate still doesn’t exceed 6% and thus about 94% the radiotoxic artificial uranium still ends up in the vast waste stream.
One of the many ways in which DBI technology differs is that DBI Thorium Reactors are designed to breed the artificial uranium-233 from thorium, burn most of that fuel as soon as it is bred, and store the minor amount of unburned fuel—all in situ. Taking advantage of the benefits of thorium, a DBI Thorium Reactor can produce electricity for a cost of only $0.04-$0.07 per kilowatt-hour while its breed-and-burn fuel cycle could over time reduce long-term radiotoxic waste more than 90% without the need for fuel reprocessing (due to more efficient fuel utilization, the elimination of packaging waste, and significant reduction of long-lived radioactive isotopes).
Additionally, no waste would be produced for 30-60 years, until plant decommissioning, wherein waste will remain in the reactor encapsulated in glass. No external storage (like Yucca Mountain) will be necessary.
Furthermore, DBI is not a paper company—an analytical source of information—but a hardware company that has built every piece of equipment ever to cross Mr. D’Auvergne’s desk. Toward the same end regarding the reactor technology, the company is currently creating the reactor core via DBI Ceramics, a division of DBI/Century Fuels Inc. DBI Ceramics is specifically aimed to manufacture the fuel containers as well as the fuel moving process using certain algorithms, while simultaneously monitoring the production and use of the artificial uranium using DBI’s own equipment.
The DBI Thorium Reactor is a one-of-a-kind technology whose modular design can achieve any output desired at significantly reduced capital and carrying costs.
DBI’s effort started back in 1970 by designing and manufacturing a linear accelerator component, such as the one shown below, to be used in subcritical assemblies. Over the years, the accelerator was replaced by a start-up fuel. The mock-up below shows a potential plant using a start-up fuel.
News
STATUS REPORT OVERVIEW
DBI Operating Company
DBI Assets Status
by H.A. Dauvergne
- As of May 2013 –
DBI Assets Status
by H.A. Dauvergne
- As of May 2013 –
Brief History
Dauvergne Bros. was incorporated one year before my 4½ years of engineering exposure at U.C. Berkeley ended. The year was 1965.
The company was divided in later years into DBI R&D and DBI Services, where we sold services to pay ourselves. The services division was closed in early 1987. The company was closed from 1987 to 1990. During those most difficult years, I never lost hope for DBI to come back, which it did in early 1991. Sales of personal assets and loans kept the company solvent from 1991 to 2009.
Administrative Support Challenges
It is my intention in this report to be as open as I can possibly be. Therefore, I herein state with no reservations, that all of the technical endeavors the company has undertaken, since the DT Engine (Ford Motor) up to the present, have been a technical success. Nevertheless, we have been challenged historically with administrative support in nearly all phases of the developments. Fortunately, in the last few years, the situation has largely improved. The improvement has been achieved by the division of specific tasks, where work for DBI is performed by independent contractors. The DBI leadership is being assisted by outside support (contractors) to facilitate the present staged funding effort by the Canadian entity Thorium Power Canada, Inc. (“TPC”).
Evolution of DBI Reactors under Direction of H.A. Dauvergne
1970-1977—Analysis of early studies to create a subcritical assembly based upon a LINAC type of proton source. Said proton source, striking a target produces a neutron flux that creates a subcritical assembly using thorium.
1977-1984—The association of Ford Laboratories, in direct connection with its founder, Dr. Franklin Ford. The specific direction of the research was the analysis of potential neutron sources that can be utilized in a core assembly fueled mostly with thorium.
1984-1990—H.A. Dauvergne gradual, major reversal. After recovering from major losses, the reactivation of the project supports the gradual abandonment of LINAC in favor of a dual core reactor with one core operating at K-1 and the other operating below K-1.
1990-1996—U.C. Berkeley/Ford Labs interaction with emphasis on fission of thorium and conventional uranium as a new source of neutrons. Also, in those years, the use of ceramics and glass was initiated.
1996-2000—At this time, there was enough evidence that a core, graphite moderated and gas cooled (of certain parameters), could be built using near conventional cladding and conventional modes of mass flow circulation. The decision was made, at this time, to advance potential infrastructure for a reactor producing hydrogen for the aerospace industry.
2000-2004—With enough evidence and analytical support to build a reactor that utilizes Thorium, while managing the fuel resources in situ, and in preparation for an open forum, DBI Operating Company designed the reactor and sought support in fuel characteristics, cladding and potential in situ sintering of granulated fuels. At this time, we studied several ceramics in connection with major laboratories in the U.S. After considerable efforts on the part of many entities, DBI Operating Company decided to divide the effort as follows:
A. Site infrastructure to manage gamma emissions based upon a below-grade structure.
B. Thermal isolation of the core in a systematic manner
C. The use of conventional power recovery, utilizing gas to water heat exchangers (cartridge type).
2004-2006—The modular concept was born. After looking at all systems worldwide that could be used as a reference, DBI initiated a series of analytical models (32 in total), employing vented fuel pins and the removal of unwanted reaction gases. Production of sample hardware was initiated to support a symposium at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Although the above did not control the symposium content, the decisions and finding were enough to entertain potential involvement outside of the United States, and to demonstrate the feasibility of using advanced computations for the systematic replacement of U-238 with Th-232.
2006-2008—Civil engineering started followed by vendor selection, including a potential manufacturer of an all-ceramic cup to replace conventional cladding. Fuel geometries were further studied with the Colorado School of Mines.
2008-2009—Potential site selection, along with an insurance system, was initiated. In the same year, the “breed and burn” concept was born and substantial advancement took place. Advances for the formation of DBI Chile matured during this period.
2009-2010—The “reactor handbook” and Powerpoint was created that allows the entire concept to advance if changes in management are necessary.
2010-2011—Additional finances were secured to advance fuel management optimization, parallel to permits, and DBI Ceramics manufacturing site was envisioned.
Technical Support – Some as independent contractors
• Senior Physicist —Has Doctorate, Master’s, and Bachelor’s Degrees in Physics, with several years as an industrial physicist and research scientist with a major governmental research center.
• Director of Procurement —Has a Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering. Spent 10 years with Boeing in their engineering department. Holds a Doctorate Degree in an unrelated field.
• Director of Operations —Has a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Business Administration, with 8 years of experience as a Licensed Stock Broker at Charles Schwab & Company.
• Senior Mechanical Engineer —The potential candidate has a Doctorate Degree in Mechanical Engineering, a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering, and a Bachelor’s Degree in Physics. Extensive experience working with the Dept. of Energy and its national laboratories, the Dept. of Defense, NASA and its technical centers.
• Executive Assistant / Project Manager —The potential candidate has a Bachelor’s Degree in Economics, with more than 30 years of experience in business and project management, personnel management, marketing, and public relations.
• Risk Analyst —Has a Master’s Degree in Industrial Safety, a Master’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering, and a Master’s Degree in Nuclear Engineering. More than 20 years of experience in nuclear fission safety, energy technology safety, fusion experiment safety, and environmental and risk analysis for Lockheed Martin, Bechtel, and a major governmental laboratory.
• Civil Engineers —One of the potential candidates has specialized for 45 years in civil engineering, architectural and structural design, and land surveying.
• Ceramic Component Manufacturers —Has specialized for 26 years in fused glass manufacturing that will lend itself to the production of high-temperature ceramics.
• Sensors and Controls —The potential candidate has specialized for about 30 years in the process control industry.
• Satellite Communications —The potential candidate has specialized for more than 30 years in data transmission, including satellite communications.
• Publication Design —Has specialized for about 20 years in multimedia and graphic design.
For the Record
• DBI reactor research started in September 1977 and concluded in September 2000. This research was conducted with the assistance of major laboratories and universities associated personnel.
• DBI reactor development started in 2000 and ended in 2004
• DBI reactors’ Division of Liability protocol and Construction Hardware started in 2004 and continued through 2008.
• The incorporation of DBI - Chile (under Chilean laws) has been completed.
• All these stages of reactor development have created the basis for about 21 independent patents now in various stages.
• By-laws that intend to stop any potential abuse on the part of potentially unscrupulous CEO have been written.
• Transfer of all DBI assets owned by the present stakeholders has been identified.
• Taxation means of compliance from both the corporation and each stakeholder has been established.
• Enough material to go public, after the demonstration plant is built, is available.
• Procedure to sell components within international law regarding U.S. National security, relating to the proliferation of nuclear power and fissile material, has been developed.
• Accounting of historical use of proceeds, properly supported, is available.
• 40% ownership in DBI-Chile (of revenues) from any and all plants built and operated by DBI-Chile, has been implemented.
Comparatives
The comparisons circulating are supported by comparisons between DBI technical claims and apparent counterparts. We believe that, any technically-oriented reader intending to compare technology, will find that there is simply no comparison as related to new fuels, regulatory compliance, truly modular design, metallurgy, core access, waste management and, primarily, safety.
About the Nuclear Accident in Japan
As we stated in a previous report, although the events at the Japanese Fukushima plant have created some public uncertainty toward nuclear power’s rebirth, to us these sad events present validation of our concepts and give us more reference to intensify our efforts.
The Vision
The vision, as we all know, relates to the creation of an extension of U.S. nuclear industry that allows Thorium oxide to gradually replace natural Uranium (and its counterpart Plutonium), and gradually move away from U-238 processing.
Analytical Status
Toward the fulfillment of this vision we have looked in all directions. We have closely examined the U.S. effort to revive the nuclear industry and we have revised nearly all the present proposals from the U.S. and foreign entities in this regard.
Technical Status
In order to support TPC’s funding efforts, DBI Operating Co. is preparing the basis for the production of reports in the following areas:
• Control System
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment
• Fuel System
• Civil Engineering
• Seismic Engineering
• Off-Gases Control System
• Ceramic Sections
• A.S.M.E. Heat Exchangers
• A.S.M.E. Valve System
• Stakeholder Communications Program Status
• Turbopumps System
• Intellectual Property Update
• Probabilistic Risk Assessment
• Fuel System
• Civil Engineering
• Seismic Engineering
• Off-Gases Control System
• Ceramic Sections
• A.S.M.E. Heat Exchangers
• A.S.M.E. Valve System
• Stakeholder Communications Program Status
• Turbopumps System
• Intellectual Property Update
DBI Stakeholder Percentage Assignment
DBI Operating Co. acknowledges its responsibility in front of the stakeholders that rightfully own the original (and evolved) technology. We have assigned each stakeholder their percentage of ownership and the right to exit the program after the major infusion of capital, should anyone desire to do so.
Taxation
The Operating Company has made provisions for taxation which must be an event taking place after the investment has produced a return to all of us. There are complex tax ramifications that relate to international investments. This is the reason that we have assigned but not distributed the company stock.
100-page DOE report status
100-page DOE report status
Upon early recommendations received by DBI at an all day meeting at the Colorado School of Mines, two documents were necessary. Document #1 is a technical overview, which was produced and filed with the offices of Mr. Richard Goorevich, U.S. Dept. of Energy (January 2010). Document #2 will be filled with the law offices of Pillsbury, Winthrop, Shaw & Pittman in Washington, D.C. when the time that an export license for components is necessary.
DBI-Chile
DBI-Chile is now operating under Chilean laws, with three qualified partners, and with prestigious law offices in Washington DC and Santiago, Chile. The entity is able to provide compliance with local and international law. We believe these accomplishments are unparalleled to any U.S. entity in the business of reviving nuclear power (as of this date).
On behalf of the operating co., I would like to thank all those that have supported this most worthwhile effort, now, and in the past.
Most Sincerely,
Hector A. Dauvergne
DBI Founder http://www.dauvergne.com/news
DBI Founder http://www.dauvergne.com/news
A thorium reactor that could provide electricity to Indonesia in two years
May 22nd, 2013
Beckoning. The lush Indonesian island of Kalimantan could soon be home to one of the greenest forms of energy – a thorium nuclear reactor.
A little known Canadian company believes it can build small thorium reactors at a fraction of the cost of other modular designs, and says that it could ship a demonstration model to Indonesia for grid connection as soon as two years from now.
Thorium Power Canada Inc. is also in advanced discussions to build a thorium reactor for Chile to power a water desalination plant, and is in preliminary talks with Saudi Arabia.
TPC, headquartered in Toronto, bases its solid thorium-fueled, gas-cooled, graphite moderated reactor on technology it acquired in January 2012 from DBI/Century Fuels, a San Francisco area intellectual property company.
The design marks a contrast to other thorium and thorium-capable reactors that I’ve written about recently, under development at companies like Flibe Energy, Terrestrial Energy, Thorium Tech Solution, and Transatomic Power, which are focused on liquid-fueled molten salt reactors. (China is developing both a solid and liquid thorium reactor; South Africa’s Steenkampskraal Thorium Ltd. is working on a solid-fueled pebble bed design).
“There’s obviously a need for thorium reactors out there,” CEO David Kerr told me when we spoke via Skype recently. “We hope to see many competitors too.”
LONG TIME COMING
TPC’s intellectual property source DBI says on its website that it has been developing the reactor for decades under founder Hector D’Auvergne, who in addition to running DBI is now TPC’s chief scientist. DBI continues to operate in San Leandro, Calif., but has regrouped as DBI Ceramics (its website still uses “Century Fuels”), a manufacturing company that will serve as TPC’s factory under terms of the intellectual property transfer.
TPC could soon place its first work order with its California partner.
According to Kerr, TPC is in “advanced discussions” with the government of Indonesia to provide a small demonstrator reactor that Indonesia would either connect to the grid or to a water desalination plant on the island of Kalimantan. Indonesia has a rapidly expanding economy in need of more power. The reactor would be somewhere between 10 megawatts and 25 megawatts, Kerr says.
One of the key final steps in completing the deal will be for TPC to secure $50 million in funding – an amount that Kerr says would cover the manufacturing ramp up and the first production run at DBI. TPC is trying to raise the money through investment firms and industrial companies.
Once it secures the backing, Kerr insists that DBI will be able to build a TPC Thorium reactor in Indonesia within 18-to-24 months. “Our only constraint there is the financing,” he notes.
The amount of money – $50 million – and the short construction time line would seem ambitious by nuclear standards, where billions of dollars and several years are generally more in order.
Water daily. Copiapo is a desert city near the Pacific Ocean in Chile. It could benefit from a thorium-powered desalination plant.
Kerr explains that the designs, after decades of development by DBI, are ready to go. And because the reactor is small, it lends itself to the manufacturing advantages generally associated with small, modular designs, in which large parts of the reactor can be assembled at a single facility for shipment to the customer.
“Most of the reactor is built offsite in a controlled manufacturing facility,” says Kerr, referring to DBI’s Bay Area plant. “All the components are shipped to the site and bolted onto the site”
LOW COST CLAIMS
TPC believes it can build its reactors up to 100-megawatts in size at a cost of $1.8 million per megawatt. A 10-MW model would tally $18 million, and 25-MW version $45 million. Again, those are numbers well below cost figures typically ascribed to other reactor types, including conventional reactors as well as other alternatives like molten salt reactors.
So how, exactly, are they doing it?
TPC is not revealing a lot of information about the proprietary design. There are a couple of short animations of the reactor on the technology page of TPC’s website.
Kerr says the reactor is gas-cooled and is graphite moderated. He won’t reveal the coolant other than to say it is not helium, because helium has a tendency to escape through pipes unless the pipes are made from special expensive material. He also declines to say whether the TPC Thorium Reactor will be a “high temperature” reactor.
What is clear is that the reactor will run on thorium fuel over the course of its 30-to-60 year life, through a series of fuel cycles which at first also rely on low enriched uranium (LEU) to activate the fertile, but not fissile, thorium. Eventually the reactor requires only thorium.
Each fuel cycles last for between 18 months and 36 months. The first three cycles require LEU. The percentage declines from 25 percent in the first cycle to between 10 and15 percent in the second and to around 5 percent in the third (TPC will use uranium enriched with a 5-to-12 percent mix of uranium 235).
After that, the fuel process will have produced enough uranium 233 to continue to activate thorium over the remainder of the reactor’s lifetime.
THORIUM GALORIUM
Why thorium? Because TPC believes the world will eventually run out of uranium, whereas thorium is four times more abundant and burns more efficiently; that the thorium process is more resistant to weapons proliferation than is the uranium cycle; and that its non-fissile nature means that reactions will shut down in the event of serious problem, avoiding any meltdown possibility.
While Indonesia could well be the company’s first customer, Chile might not be far behind.
The South American nation – the 76-year-old D’Auvergne’s birth country – is interested in deploying a 10-MW TPC Thorium reactor to power a desalination plant near the northern city of Copiapo.
TPC has been discussing the project with a group of government and business officials, who first want TPC to produce eight separate engineering reports examining things like seismic durability, fuel fabrication, core construction including the reactor’s pressure vessel.
Kerr says he has strong interest from Chilean and Argentine mining companies who would use a TPC Thorium reactor to supply onsite electricity at their remote, off grid mining operations (Copaipo is near the site of the 2010 Chilean accident that trapped 33 miners for 69 days). Mining companies today tend to use expensive diesel generation processes; developers of small modular reactors have generally identified mining and oil operations as a potentially strong market.
Countries like Canada, with its tar sands operations, and the U.S. are also potential markets for a TPC Thorium reactor, but Kerr says the company is currently focusing on countries where regulatory barriers are less severe.
TPC is also in early talks with Saudi Arabia, which has plans to deploy 17 gigawatts of nuclear power providing a sixth of its electricity by 2032.
Photos: Kilamantan from Smaragd Reizen. Copiapo from Skyscrapercity.
2 COMMENTS ON “A THORIUM REACTOR THAT COULD PROVIDE ELECTRICITY TO INDONESIA IN TWO YEARS”
Martin Kral on May 23, 2013 at 11:19 am said:
I have read about Hector D’Auvergne’s adventures before and it seems he has put his entire life and his own money into this reactor project. I would love to see some commercial success within 2-3 years because that is what will wake the uninformed up and maybe we could start to see more investment money supporting the thorium fuel cycle,Petr Kallan on May 23, 2013 at 3:50 pm said:
The thorium fan club must be on some serious mushrooms!!http://www.the-weinberg-foundation.org/2013/05/22/a-thorium-reactor-that-could-provide-electricity-to-indonesia-in-two-years/
Martin Kral on May 23, 2013 at 11:19 am said:
Petr Kallan on May 23, 2013 at 3:50 pm said: