Coal also has lots of Thorium in it, enough to produce about 12 times the energy of actually burning the coal itself.
Coal isn’t dead; what is dead is the fiction that government on any level represents the people of this country.
“Coal also has lots of Thorium in it, enough to produce about 12 times the energy of actually burning the coal itself.”
True, and lots of rare earths too, but...
The land under my feet and in my state has enough uranium to power the US for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it’s at a concentration that makes it impossible to recover. There is, however, enough to produce radon...enough so that you have to spend money ventilating your basement. So, there may be lots of something, the problem is making it economically recoverable.
If any good comes from this, the post-apocalyptic peoples who live in North America in the future will have a great, low-tech source of heat and energy :(.