Cheap and Safe Fission Reactor Designed by Teenager

A teenager designed a cheap and safe modular fission reactor at the impressive age of only nineteen. The reactor is an invention of Taylor Wilson, who worked on it for the past one year. He claims that his design has 30-year fuel life and very low usage cost, making it perfect for developing nations.

Instead of following the conventional procedure for heating up water using uranium dioxide fuel, Wilson decided to test heating up of gas, creating 50 % more efficient molten salt reactor. This increase in efficiency is due to the much higher temperature at which the new reactor operates.

Besides operating at up to 700 degrees Celsius, the new reactor also generates up to 100 megawatts of electricity. The fuel used to operate the molten salt reactor is the the highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium collecting dust since the Cold War.

The reactor should be refueled once every 30 years, which significantly reduces the risk of proliferation. Compared to conventional reactors, the new design does not operate at high pressure, making it less prone to explosions.

Wilson is convinced that in a few decades from now, his new design will lead the way to a carbon-free energy generation