Why bother then if you’re going to wring your hands over extracting valuable thorium, along with other REE’s? Either you have a vested interest in buying from the chinese, or you are in bed with the environuts, who are financed by the vested interests who buy from the chinese. The biggest impediment to mining is the EPA, and the EPA is owned, lock, stock, and barrel by large business interests, who also own the best politicians money can buy. It’s not technical, it’s entirely political.
It's Crony Capitalism, pure and simple.