Since thorium is so commonly available, we could build hundreds of 500 to 1,000 MW LFTR reactor installations and render the use of burning coal to generate power essentially obsolete. And we could generate so much electric power that all of our long-distance railroads could be electrified. The result is a dramatic drop in air pollution, since we won't have the pollution from coal-burning power plants or many thousands of diesel-electric locomotives.
We can also use the power for:
1. Desalination of sea water
2. Crack Hydrogen from water
3. Combine Hydrogen with atmospheric CO2 to make diesel, gas, and ammonia fertilizer
4. Eat up solid nuclear waste and convert it to secondary products and spare energy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyqYP6f66Mw
It can also power coal “gasification” plants.
If we had a lot of Thorium reactors, we couls also electrify the highways and major traffic city roads, and drive electric cars with small batteries that never need recharging, because they would get their charge from the road.
Electricity seems always in need of hard wiring/grid. I wonder whether future generations will find an alternative. I look for the day when homes are not held captive to a central source in order to enjoy what electricity provides; perhaps independent micro nuclear cells. Whoever can market such a thing in a manner to cut electric bills down substantially will have a profitable business.
But we will never totally eliminate economic disparity, injustice, grief, greed, and anxiety by our own efforts, no matter how slick the program. “Give us this day our daily bread.”