Posted on 11/06/2013 11:49:31 PM PST by Innovative
Carlo Rubbia, a former director of the CERN laboratory who shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physics, described thorium as having “absolute pre-eminence” over all other fuels including fossil fuels and uranium, the metallic element that has driven reactors since nuclear first started powering public grids in 1956.
“In order to be vigorously continued, nuclear power must be profoundly modified,” Rubbia said at the Thorium Energy Conference 2013, held on the CERN campus here last week.
Rubbia pointed out that thorium leaves less long-lived waste than uranium, is far more plentiful and is resistant to weapons proliferation, as I reported on my Weinberg blog. He also noted that thorium is effective at safely breeding more fuel, and that it has a much higher energy content than uranium or fossil fuels (see chart below), a characteristic that he said gives it “absolute pre-eminence…as a source of energy.”
Thorium’s supporters include former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix, who also spoke at the conference, praising thorium’s proliferation reduction.
Rubbia, the particle physicist, said that thorium could help reverse nuclear’s tarnished image in a post-Fukushima world, and that the planet will need it as a low carbon energy source - a job often ascribed to renewables like wind and solar.
(Excerpt) Read more at smartplanet.com ...
Thorium ping
Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century
http://iranian.com/posts/view/post/23767
There are now over one billion cars traveling roads around the world directly and indirectly costing trillions of dollars in material resources, time and noxious emissions. Imagine all these cars running cleanly for 100 years on just 8 grams of fuel each.
Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut, USA, is developing a new method of automotive propulsion with one of the most dense materials known in nature: thorium. Because thorium is so dense it has the potential to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The company has been experimenting with small bits of thorium, creating a laser that heats water, produces steam and powers a mini turbine.
Current models of the engine weigh 500 pounds, easily fitting into the engine area of a conventionally-designed vehicle. According to CEO Charles Stevens, just one gram of the substance yields more energy than 7,396 gallons (28,000 L) of gasoline and 8 grams would power the typical car for a century.
Then SELL IT.
PRODUCE IT.
PUT IT ON A SHELF WHERE I CAN BUY IT.
With those numbers energy independence of each individual household could be achieved with a 500lb thorium generator in your furnace room.
If such a thing were possible right now, who wouldn’t buy one the same day?
Current nuclear tech is a bust. It’s going to kill us all at the rate we are going. If thorium is better, then let’s get on with it already.
Thorium Energy Conference at CERN on 27-30 Oct 2013
http://indico.cern.ch/conferenceDisplay.py?confId=222140
The webcast recordings will be available soon on the Webcast pages.
Papers presented:
http://indico.cern.ch/contributionListDisplay.py?confId=222140
Obama could kill fossil fuels overnight with a nuclear dash for thorium
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.
There is no certain bet in nuclear physics but work by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia at CERN (European Organization for Nuclear Research) on the use of thorium as a cheap, clean and safe alternative to uranium in reactors may be the magic bullet we have all been hoping for, though we have barely begun to crack the potential of solar power.
Dr Rubbia says a tonne of the silvery metal – named after the Norse god of thunder, who also gave us Thor’s day or Thursday - produces as much energy as 200 tonnes of uranium, or 3,500,000 tonnes of coal. A mere fistful would light London for a week.
Thorium Nuclear Power: Climate Change Killer for the 21st Century?
http://thoriumforum.com/thorium-nuclear-power-climate-change-killer-21st-century
As our planet warms and nations create expensive, short-sighted plans to “adapt” to catastrophic changes, why not eliminate one of the largest sources of CO2-caused Climate Change? Why not replace carbon-fueled and uranium power plants with Thorium Nuclear Power: Climate Change Killer for the 21st Century?
I like a Thorium based energy because of the cost savings. Mankind needs an energy source that so inexpensive that it will finally relieve humans of the burden of producing it. The need to reduce CO2 emissions is only a value for someone who needs to believe in human caused Global Warming. So far, science has only been able to prove that Global Warming is the result of Sun activity. We had better be prepared for the event when the Sun causes solar cooling. Then, we will need everything we can cook up, CO2 or not.
!
What a strange thing to write. Sooo...gold and platinum, having roughly twice the density of thorium, are going to produce even more heat, right?
lots more important than Thorium —>
electric cars
This is really a win-win-win for everybody, should make the rightest wing zealot, as well as an honest tree-hugger happy.
Hans Blix, now that is a name I had hoped to never hear again. No such luck.
Al Gore and his buddies have already invested in wind, electric cars, solar and carbon credits. The LEFT will fight this.
well.... if Hans Blix is for it...!!
(seriously, I am for it, I just hate this buffoon)
Any info out there for a home electric kit that you can share?
I hope Blix hears every night in his dreams the tortured screams of the man who tried to give him Sodamn Hinsane’s nuclear secrets
Rubia has an interesting idea with his energy from Thorium spalling technique. The fuel never reaches criticality. But the problem is you need a particle accelerator to make it work.
gold and platinum are not fissionable
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