Cold Reminds Us of Importance of Dependable Energy

Townhall.com ^ | January 12, 2018 | Tom Harris

[AndyJackson]

Uninformed science fiction nonsense. The Thorium cycle does not make plutonium. It makes U 233 instead.

[AndyJackson]

Uranium is rare in comparison. Thorium energy is cheap!

Another fallacy. The cost of uranium is negligible in the balance of the cost of nuclear power. It just isn't a factor. The principal cost is the cost of the construction of a power plant meeting modern nuclear safety requirements - and these are not BS regulatory requirements, but real requirements to ensure the safety of the public, workers and capital investment.

[bigbob]

Way more than I can try to condense into a post, but it’s not because of any U shortage. Here’s a good starting point:

https://liquidfluoridethoriumreactor.glerner.com/2012-what-is-a-lftr/

https://eic.rsc.org/feature/is-thorium-the-perfect-fuel/2000092.article

There have been proposals for smaller scale LFTRs that lend themselves to distributed generation - many small generation plants near the high demand areas rather than larger ones like we have today which require costly and vulnerable transmission infrastructure.

[AndyJackson]

Yes, I know all about all of that stuff. Despite the views put about by some of our theoretical nuclear engineering schools, tt's all uneconomic, very, at present natural gas prices.

And you are engaged in one of the biggest fallacies of all time - that a yet unproven technology makes obsolete technologies that work well and have gone through multiple cycles of innovation and incremental improvement.

You are being led astray by a bunch of folks who want more government money to do stuff because there is no source of private investment to do it, and the government cannot get any group of experts to endorse spending money on it either.

[Paulie]

I said “no weapons grade plutonium”.

Please, this is not a point that can be argued. Not in good faith anyway.

Do some research. And have a nice weekend.

[353FMG]

Dependable energy is spelled L-N-G.

[AndyJackson]

I said “no weapons grade plutonium”. Please, this is not a point that can be argued...Do some research..

As you are quite aware Th is not a nuclear fuel. It is used to breed U 233, which is the fissionable fuel. U233 is usable for nuclear weapons. Google it, please.