Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World Off Oil In Just Five Years

[Daox]

The title sounds a bit far fetched, but if this article has much truth to it it is definitely worth looking into. Even if its only a better alternative to nuclear...

Rubbia says a fistful of thorium could light up London for a week.
...
...thorium-based accelerator-driven plants only produce a small amount of plutonium, which could allow the U.S. and other nations to skirt NPT.

Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World Off Oil In Just Five Years | Popular Science

[Xringer]

We already have (or had) a working prototype thorium reactor.
It ran very well and was very safe. You could turn it off on the weekends
and crank it right back up on Monday morning..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk

I guess the big corporations who make fuel rods for light-water reactors
had no interest in thorium fueled reactors, since they were so cheap to run.
No profit in them.


Instead of spending a few of billion on building some new prototypes,
we are going to use the money to bail out Fanny & Mac again..

[Christ]

I like the idea, but I haven't done any research, so comment is beyond me.

5 years does seem unreasonably short, though. Maybe 10

[Xringer]

How long did the Manhattan Project take? All we need to do is about 2 years of R&D,
then start building modifiable prototypes for a few years. If they work well, start building some small generation plants

But it seems idiots in the government want to head off anything like cheap clean power.


Google and ye shall find government folly..

The North Coast: Save the Uranium 233

Not only does our stupid government plan to over-tax our great grandchildren,
they also plan to stop them from having electricity, unless it's from burning coal (or wood).

The level of stupidity in Washington is unbelievable...

Just tossing away a key element of what is almost a "perpetual motion" machine for generating power..

Why? because our nuclear bombs are getting old and someone upstairs, wants us to build more?

So, we can't start building cleaner power plants that don't product large amounts of nuclear bomb ingredients.

[Xringer]

Thorium in the news.. (eh Blogosphere).

petroleumworld

"The Uranium Pinch - Uranium prices will rise "

Maybe it's just Oilmen trying to scare people off nuke power,
but the numbers might be right.. The world is going to see
a lot more nuke plants, (if we live long enough).

More news.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-Ge...o-Uranium.html

[Xringer]

Nukes in the news..

Liability law puts India's nuclear future in doubt | The Energy Collective

This could be good news for those countries worried about the cost of fueling their nuke plants.
Seems like India might not be a big player, for now.

[Xringer]

Partnerships toward a miniFuji Thorium Molten Salt Reactor




200 Megawatts.. That's not too big..

[NeilBlanchard]

Any plutonium is too much plutonium.

[Xringer]

Watch the 16 minute video above.
The nice part about Thorium reactors, they can eat waste from other reactors.

If the Japanese are smart, they will copy the US prototype design and built small exportable turn-key units.

I'm wondering how small these things could be made.?. Could the be used on Navy ships etc? Space stations?

[AC_Hacker]

Originally Posted by Xringer

I'm wondering how small these things could be made.?. Could the be used on Navy ships etc? Space stations?

This does look like a pretty cute idea. If the whole setup would only decay into plant food in a few years, we'd really have a solution.

The USSR actually had a large number of very small nuke power sources that they used to provide power to very remote coastal markers, channel markers, etc.

The power units worked pretty well, however still requiring periodic maintenance.

When the USSR collapsed, the money just wasn't there for maintenance (or anything else), and the units just kept working...

...at least some of them just kept working... the ones that weren't stolen for their uranium (it is said that dirty bombs are easy to make), or failed due to containment shells cracking, sending hot nuclear waste out into the surrounding land, air and water.

Just imagine the BP spill, if it had been nuclear.

Now imagine many thousands of nuclear spills.

Our government, thanks to our brave military, has made a nuclear wasteland out of Iraq (the cradle of civilization), thanks to the many hundred tons of Depleted Uranium we spread around there.

* * Half-Life = 4.5 billion years * *

Have you bothered to check out the rise in the birth defect rate in Iraq since we brought them democracy and depleted uranium? I'll make it easy for you... CLICK HERE and read.

How safe is your life savings in the hands of our government? (If there is any problem with Social Security, it is that our government could not resist the temptation to spend our money on their wars.)

How safe is the environment in the hands of the government, dealing with a problem that could last many, many thousands of years?

Think about it... really, think about it.