Posted on 08/29/2010 12:01:55 PM PDT by Nachum
If Barack Obama were to marshal America’s vast scientific and strategic resources behind a new Manhattan Project, he might reasonably hope to reinvent the global energy landscape and sketch an end to our dependence on fossil fuels within three to five years. We could then stop arguing about wind mills, deepwater drilling, IPCC hockey sticks, or strategic reliance on the Kremlin. History will move on fast.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Thorium ping.
Me too. Here’s some basic research / links.
http://www.dailyreckoning.com.au/thorium/2008/07/02/
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/4971
http://energyfromthorium.com/lftradsrisks.html
http://www.wired.com/magazine/2009/12/ff_new_nukes/
>> I wonder how many other radioactive elements could be used to generate electricity.
What are you from outer space or something? Jeez, you dreamers are all alike...
Are people here calling thorium a harmless fuel genie?
We’re talking about nuclear power, here. We all know that uranium is radioactive, and dangerous, and we’ve been making electricity with uranium for years.
I guess one of the main advantages of thorium is that there’s apparently a lot of it. What did the article say, something like hundreds of thousands of years worth?
What are you talking about?
Uranium is a radioactive element currently being used to generate electricity. Thorium can be as well. What about other ones?
I guess what you’re saying is that Thorium is so good that we don’t have to look any farther, that all of our potential energy problems are solved?
That may be so, if that’s what you’re saying.
Yes, I realize we have nuclear energy, and continued research in the field is a good thing.
The US wanted U235 and Plutonium, so Thorium research got pushed aside in favor of Uranium reactors.
That’s how I remember it anyway."
You are mostly correct Th232 by neutron capture becomes Th233 then by beta decay becomes protactinium 233 then by subsequent decay becomes uranium 233 which is fissile and a very good material for small tactical warheads as its properties care similar to pu239 but its spontaneous decay rates are low enough to allow a gun based weapon system as apposed to a implosion device needed for Pu239 the bare sphere mass for U233 to achieve supercritical is around 10kg this is almost identical to pu239.
we did test small warheads with U233 in the 1960's the problem is U232 is produced via decay and U232 is a very strong gamma emitter thus making assemblies and shielding become a issue for weapons using U233.
That said the Th232 to U233 fuel cycle is the only cycle that is capable of achieving a breed ratio of +1 in a light water reactor the Canadians have run a CANDU reactor with th233 fuel bundles and have achieved self breeding of U233 in a ratio needed to support self sustained fuel cycle namely a positive breed ratio. The CANDU design can go from first concrete pour to first fueling in less than 5 years as they have done this now 6 times on time and/or under budget for the Chinese.
“...dual use programs...”
Our power reactors throughout the nation aren’t used to produce plutonium, are they? I read in wikipedia that the liquid thorium cycle won’t produce fissile material but a solid thorium cycle will, or something like that.
The world is waiting for a clean, safe source of electric power. There’s plenty of motivation to try to use thorium. Some technical difficulty is standing in the way.
Do these idiot Marxists even begin to understand? (Dumb question.)
What a nut!
His goal isn’t a switch to clean, green, free, groovy energy.
It is to funnel America’s wealth to the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia.
Bump!
Jeeze, Bump again!
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