Posted on 11/14/2013 2:24:11 PM PST by neverdem
If your car was powered by thorium, you would never need to refuel it. The vehicle would burn out long before the chemical did. The thorium would last so long, in fact, it would probably outlive you.
That's why a company called Laser Power Systems has created a concept for a thorium-powered car engine. The element is radioactive, and the team uses bits of it to build a laserbeam that heats water, produces steam, and powers an energy-producing turbine.
Thorium is one of the most dense materials on the planet. A small sample of it packs 20 million times more energy than a similarly-sized sample of coal, making it an ideal energy source.
The thing is, Dr. Charles Stevens, the CEO of Laser Power Systems, told Mashable that thorium engines won't be in cars anytime soon.
"Cars are not our primary interest," Stevens said. "The automakers don't want to buy them."
He said too much of the automobile industry is focused on making money off of gas engines, and it will take at least a couple decades for thorium technology to be used enough in other industries that vehicle manufacturers will begin to consider revamping the way they think about engines.
"We're building this to power the rest of the world," Stevens said. He believes a thorium turbine about the size of an air conditioning unit could more provide cheap power for whole restaurants, hotels, office buildings, even small towns in areas of the world without electricity. At some point, thorium could power individual homes.
Stevens understands that people may be wary of Thorium because it is radioactive — but any such worry would be unfounded.
"The radiation that we develop off of one of these things can be shielded by a single sheet off of aluminum foil," Stevens said." "You will get more radiation from one of those dental X-rays than this."
Thorium is possibly our best hope.
Break-even, cost-effective controlled fusion has been 25 years away for the last 60 years.
***You mean, “
Break-even, cost-effective controlled HOT fusion has been 25 years away for the last 60 years. “
Break-even, cost-effective controlled LENR fusion has been 2 years away for the last 6 years. And the contrast between the money poured down the hot fusion rathole is astonishing contrasted to cold fusion: hundreds of $billions vs tens of $millions. Cold Fusion is 14 ORDERS of MAGNITUDE more cost effective than Hot Fusion.
asked & answered
-———————www.mail-archive.com/vortex-l@eskimo.com/msg85822.html———————
Yada Yada.
Japan wants to build radioactive cars.
Does ObamaCare cover radiation illness and cancer caused from this?
Use thorium to power electrical generators for homes and industry. But leave the auto industry to the internal combustion engine. In one form or another ...
Turbine cars do not work too well. Chrysler had one for a while, They run along fine but the turbine does not like to slow down.
Turbines charging a battery pack energizing electric motors. Like a small diesel hybrid. Take advantage of the RPM sweet spot for efficiency.
Dilithium crystals exist. They are used in hot fusion research. No joke.
Life imitates art.
they only focus the energy, the energy isn’t inside them. they focus matter-antimatter beams and wear down in the process.
that’s my geek for today.
That makes sense that they wear down. Allows more plotlines.
Pa-kaw, PA-KAW!
and the higher the warp speed traveled, the faster they wear down and need to be replaced. this was a plotline in several episodes.
Got to have a vulnerability, like kryptonite for Superman and the color yellow for Green Lantern.
Would love to have a thorium unit buried under the house to provide all my heat, hot water and electricity.
Could live off-grid in comfort.
Public utility commissions PUC's (pukes) would never allow it.
“You’re my only hope, Thori-One-Kenobe”.
They wouldn’t be able to stop it.
I saw that same post on FR 200 years from now.
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