The Future of
Sustainable
Nuclear Energy
The Lithium Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) is a thermal-spectrum molten-salt reactor operating on the thorium fuel cycle.
We seek to overcome the obstacles hindering deployment of carbon-free nuclear energy by dramatically departing from current reactor technology; we will provide a new generation of reactors for a new generation of sustainability.
From small modular reactors for transport and space to multi-unit gigawatt-scale power plants on earth, LFTR is designed to be a scalable approach to nuclear energy.
The Benefits of LFTR
Each part of the reactor system has been carefully chosen for the optimal balance of performance and safety.
Thorium Fuel
The thorium fuel cycle allows us to fuel our reactors without uranium enrichment and eliminates the long-lived waste products from other designs. Thorium is plentiful throughout the earth's crust — four times as common as uranium, 5,000 times as plentiful as gold and generally as abundant as lead.
Liquid Fuel Form
The thorium fuel inside LFTR is in liquid form. This prevents meltdowns, increases efficiency, and allows the reactor to run at atmospheric pressure. The reactivity of the core is also self-controlling due to the density of the molten salt.
Processing System
The integrated processing system allows for revolutionary advances in nuclear technology. Fission products and medical isotopes can be removed while recycling the fuel through the reactor to use more of the available energy. This results in a minimized waste stream with no long-lived fission products contaminating the fuel.
Power Conversion System
LFTR's high outlet temperature of 650°C can be coupled with super-efficient advanced power conversion systems such as supercritical CO2 turbines. These highly compact systems have turbomachinery that could fit on a dinner table, reducing the footprint of LFTR power plants.
Safe Operations
Any increase in operating temperature reduces the density of the salt which in turn, causes the reaction to slow and the temperature to fall. LFTR is also designed with a simple frozen salt plug in the bottom of the reactor core vessel. In the event of power loss to the reactor, the frozen salt plug quickly melts and the fuel salt drains down into a storage tank below — causing a termination in the fission process.
Waste Management
LFTRs will produce far less waste than current reactors along the entire fuel cycle and process chain, from ore extraction to nuclear waste storage. Lithium reactor technology can also be used to consume the remaining fissile material available in spent nuclear fuel stockpiles around the world and to extract and resell many of the valuable fission products that are currently considered waste.
zero
CO2 Emissions
24/7
Operations
100%
Sustainability
Proven Technology & Innovation
Flibe's LFTR is based on proven technology demonstrated during the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE) by the US Government at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The MSRE prototype ran for over 20,000 hours and successfully demonstrated the viability of the base design and concept.
LFTR is the modernized and improved version of the MSRE prototype with additional capabilities to take full advantage of the thorium fuel cycle. By taking advantage of these benefits, we are opening up new frontiers in medicine, industry, and more.
LFTR Specifications
The modular design of LFTR allows for easy configuration for many different applications, both large and small.
The table shows a configuration optimized for large-scale energy production.
Reactor
LFTR
Power
250 MWe
Power Conversion System
sCO2 Brayton
Cooling Options
Dry or Wet
Efficiency
42%
Reactor Outlet Temp
650°C
Reactor Inlet Temp
500°C
Reactor Pressure
Near Atmospheric
Reactor Structure
Hastelloy N
Uranium Enrichment
None
Fuel Salt
FLiBeU
Blanket Salt
FLiTh
Coolant Salt
FLiBe
A Better Nuclear Future
Lithium reactors are the ultimate energy source that will propel humanity away from fossil fuels and into a true nuclear era — the thorium age of sustainable development, energy independence, and exploration of new frontiers.