Posted on 05/02/2015 10:21:16 AM PDT by all the best
Here’s another, more recent one: The thorium-turbine powered car.
Heat energy from the thorium – a weakly radioactive element (named after the Norse god Thor) that is estimated to be 3-4 times more naturally abundant than uranium and which contains 20 million times the energy as an equivalent lump of coal – is used to generate steam, which is then used to power a small turbine, which provides the motive force. The beauty of the system is that – like a nuclear submarine – the fuel lasts almost forever. Well, longer than you will last, probably.
How’s 100 years sound?
No more stopping for “gas”… ever.
This alone would make current IC cars seem as wasteful of time (and energy) as current IC cars make electric cars look wasteful of time and energy.
But wait, there’s more.
Well, less.
No emissions at all. Because nothing’s being burned, there’s no exhaust. Water to steam, expansion and contraction – and back again. Closed (and clean) loop. The Algoreans ought to be ecstatic. Yet there is dead silence.
You can hear the crickets chirping.
Is it because thorium is radioactive? The word is third rail to scientifically illiterate homo Americanus – who fears it in the same way a savage fears the voices coming out of the Talk Box (radio). The mere mention of the word is sufficient to incite a panic. It’s why the nuclear power grid is dead in the water; or rather, as old as a Betamax copy of Saturday Night Fever.
But it’s not even the same thing. Thorium is mildly radioactive. Dr. Charles Stevens, CEO of Laser Power Systems – which is developing the technology, or at least, trying to – says: “The radiation can be shielded by a single sheet of aluminum foil.” thorium two
(Excerpt) Read more at ericpetersautos.com ...
Sounds like a natural for heavy trucks ,,, plenty of room to make an early version fit.
“Sounds like a natural for heavy trucks ,,, plenty of room to make an early version fit.”
We only need a government subsidy of a few hundred million per truck to make it work.
“Whether they are used to supply material for making bombs right now is irrelevant.”
You said bomb making was the purpose and power was a side-show. The fact that none are used for bomb making totally refutes your statement. You can not say it is irrelevant.
“Choosing a reactor design that requires water at 70 atmospheres to produce “power” is just stupid. But that is the predominant reactor design that we have now, because that is what the NRC will permit, and nothing else.”
Wrong.
http://www.nei.org/News-Media/News/News-Archives/NRC-Says-It-Is-Ready-for-Small-Reactor-Licensing
As I thought I had suggested, insurance against the risk of an accidental spill of radioactive isotopes would be utterly unaffordable. Such an event would be far too likely, and the cost of such an event would be far too high.
The possibility that it may be a one-time purchase and move from vehicle to vehicle could soften that blow.
Of course, nothing lasts 100 years if it requires newer items to remain adaptive to it...
And Polonium is so radioactive your skin can protect you against it.
But don't ingest it. Like poor Alexander here (just a smidgen in his tea):
Because, then, its alpha particles get a shot at your innards with no skin to shield.
It took Alexander's docs until T - 3 days (for him) to figure out what he had. But, then Scotland Yard took over and traced the substance eastward all across Europe ... Look for a big parade on YouTube Mother's Day.
Believer in an internet scam not. They way you attribute something to me totally undercuts your credibility. Thus my quip about your intelligence. Your 100% off the mark. You have impressive qualifications if you have been truthful with me, which I doubt. It would be nice to learn from someone knowledgeable, which you seem to want to make impossible. Must be a Texas thing.
This post is ridiculous. A Small Modular Reactor? Really? This is Obama propaganda during an election cycle that touts “grants” and other goodies that can be channeled to swing states.
http://www.energy.gov/articles/obama-administration-announces-450-million-design-and-commercialize-us-small-modular
The AP1000 is a pressurized water reactor. So when you saw “wrong” you are 100% wrong. A PWR is the ONLY marketable design because of the regulations put in place in the 70’s make it that way.
How much influence can Westinghouse exert to prevent any change in the regulations, now that it has a design it can sell because it meets with that is in sync with “policy”?
Why is having a reactor operate under 70 atmospheres a good thing? What could possibly go wrong?
Why did funding stop for the MSRE at ORNL, which was shut down in 1969?
Nothing you have said dissuades my thinking that power from a PWR is a sideshow and that PWR’s were chosen because they can make bomb material.
You say, “The fact that none are used for bomb making totally refutes your statement.” This is a perfect example of the ex hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy.
You might know how to monitor a reactor, but you have shown little ability to think independently.
“Believer in an internet scam not. They way you attribute something to me totally undercuts your credibility. Thus my quip about your intelligence. Your 100% off the mark.”
Uh, your quip about my intelligence was BEFORE I made comment about scams.
“You have impressive qualifications if you have been truthful with me, which I doubt. It would be nice to learn from someone knowledgeable, which you seem to want to make impossible. Must be a Texas thing.”
I gave you some facts and then you made a three word post “Thorium Fuel Cycle” apparently trying to refute my posts or ‘educate’ me on the cycle. You were not willing to accept my sourced facts nor ask for clarification.
“You might know how to monitor a reactor, but you have shown little ability to think independently.”
1. You are totally ignorant in nuclear physics and reactor design.
2. You are brainwashed from reading the thorium scam site.
3. You have shown zero interest in upgrading your knowledge in this area.
“Believer in an internet scam not.”
You believed their hype ...
“and that PWR’s were chosen because they can make bomb material.”
1. The Oak Ridge and Hanford plutonium facilities were not pwr’S.
2. PWR’s cannot make the material for hydrogen bombs.
” PWR’s were chosen because they can make bomb material.”
I missed giving you the Savannah River project. Our only other bomb material producing reactor facility. It, also, was NOT a pwr.
” PWR’s were chosen because they can make bomb material.”
Please see below on why PWRs are NOT used to make bomb material ....
Plutonium-240 is the second most common isotope, formed by occasional neutron capture by Pu-239. Its concentration in nuclear fuel builds up steadily, since it does not undergo fission to produce energy in the same way as Pu-239. (In a fast neutron reactor it is fissionablec, which means that such a reactor can utilise recycled plutonium more effectively than a LWR.) While of a different order of magnitude to the fission occurring within a nuclear reactor, Pu-240 has a relatively high rate of spontaneous fission with consequent neutron emissions. This makes reactor-grade plutonium entirely unsuitable for use in a bomb (see section on Plutonium and weapons below). Reactor-grade plutonium is defined as that with 19% or more of Pu-240. This is also called ‘civil plutonium’.
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/Current-and-Future-Generation/Molten-Salt-Reactors/
“You have impressive qualifications if you have been truthful with me, which I doubt.”
Whatever. I see you do not doubt the hype that some scam website asking for money puts out ...
“There’s no profit in it for anyone. That’s why”
You should go to the company’s website. It’s another play on the cold-fusion scam.
Why do we keep getting these scams posted and supported? Because there is profit in it for someone.
Our previous cold-fusion supporters on FR were outed as having a monetary interest and at least one was booted.
They claim to be a US company but the below is on their home page. Obviously written by someone from an Eastern European country ...
Project Description: R & D and manufacturing complex for the building of Laser Power Systems, a highly differentiated, unique and significantly superior product. At this time the 2.5 Mkw High speed generators have been building and are being tested by the USAF. The 2.5 Mkw unit is a 1/10th the size of conventional generators at only 28 x 21 inches and 360 lbs., number of other sizes, 5Kw, 30Kw. 90Kw, 200Kw, 1.2 Mkw have also been built and tested under a number of development programs and larger units are being designed to meet the demands of the commercial power industry. The Tesla turbines are simple and cheap to build the one in the picture is 75% Complete but is just a new prototype design that has much application. The complete system, MaxFelaser, turbine, need to be sized to the generator that it would be powering. At this time more than 20 years of research and development has gone into these technologies. To produces a complete prototype systems will take 3 to 6 months and another 6 to 12 month for small scale manufacturing to start and 12 to 24 months for larger scale production to be in place. This time scale is based on minimum investments of 250 million dollars over a 3 year period. It would be possible to fast
It’s ironic that he starts his article with:
“Why is it that alternative technologies that clearly do not work –”
“The beauty of the system is that – like a nuclear submarine – the fuel lasts almost forever.”
Somebody is scamming us when they take the nuclear subs in for refueling ...
Dr. Charles Stevens ...
The ‘doctor’ that brought the revolutionary Helyxzion TRD Viewer to market ....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.