The mighty thorium : The nearly perfect energy source nobody has heard of

COLUMBUS DISPATCH ^ | March 7, 2010 | Doug Caruso

[george76]

Craving reliable energy that doesn't come with a big side order of carbon, the United States is taking a new look at nuclear power.

some engineers also are urging a new look at an alternative to the uranium fuel those plants will inevitably use.

Thorium, they say, provides all the carbon-free energy of uranium - about 300 times more, actually - with almost none of the guilt.

Thorium plants cooled with molten fluoride salt would leave a fraction of the nuclear waste compared to the uranium-fueled, water-cooled plants in use today. In addition, thorium plants can't melt down and don't produce reliable fuel for bombs.

"What's not to love?" asked Kirk Sorensen, a NASA rocket scientist in Huntsville, Ala., who is earning his doctorate in nuclear engineering.

Sorensen has taken up the cause of thorium reactors, an idea conceived in the 1950s and last researched in the United States in the early 1970s at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.

And compared to coal?

So why aren't there thorium reactors all over the country?

[reed13]

As I recall the liquid sodium was the coolant in place of H20, but the fuel was still uranium in those plants.

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks george76 for the topic, and neverdem for the ping to it.

The new Discover mag has nukes, clean coal etc in the cover story on future energy sources.

Keywords thorium, helium3, and he3 sorted chrono:

• Two Arrested for Radioactive Sale Attempt
• Politics of a Lunar Colony: How to wean Earth from Oil to Helium-3
• Mining the moon for energy on Earth
• The Moon can provide electric power sufficient for 1000 years [Says Russian scientist]
• Moon plan to give U.S. control over energy sources
• China announces plans to start astronaut training for next manned flight
• 1,320 pounds of Uranium,Thorium seized in Brazil (Obtained from secret mine in the Amazon).
• Moon gas could meet Earth's future energy demands: Scientists
• Moon gas could meet earth's future energy demands: scientists
• There's Helium-3 In Them There Moon Hills
• Mining The Moon
• First measurements of Earth's core radioactivity
• World's 'safest' nuclear reactor in India
• Russia proposes mining helium-3 on Moon (commerce to space)
• Indian nuclear data on thorium unique, valuable: IAEA-CRP
• Mining the Moon
• Russian space co. says hopes to start extracting helium on Moon
• Energy from space to be explored
• Mining the moon for a nuclear future
• A Moon full of opportunity
• Let's Mine the Blamed Thing (He3)
• Fears over factoids (debunks mini black hole fears, He3 as fuel source)
• How Lunar Soil Could Power the Future (helium-3)
• Thorium Energy Independence and Security Act of 2008
• Touchdown! India's first lunar probe lands on the moon
• How Moon Dust Could Yield Oxygen, Fuel and Water
• Report: 'Dirty bomb' parts found in slain man's home
• Advanced nuclear technology and CO2 mittigation (Thorium as an Energy Resource)
• 'Moon' movie mines inner space
• Considering Thorium as an Alternative Fuel for Nuclear Energy
• U.S. Losing Space Race
• Uranium Is So Last Century -- Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
• The mighty thorium : The nearly perfect energy source nobody has heard of

[CH3CN]

I read this thread last week and was fascinated as I work at at a college of engineering in chemical engineering as a secretary. So, after reading this and googling around some more I asked one of our leading NE-ChE professors about this. He said this is 100% correct. I asked him if research in thorium was worthwhile, especially since it doesn’t produce plutonium, is accessible and more abundant here, and lasts longer. He said definitely. Apparently, the only reason we use uranium is because that’s what the military used and all the research, funding, etc. has just gone with uranium ever since. No other reason than politics.

Anyway, thanks for such a fun and informational thread.

[george76]

Thanks for the update and your research.

Your points are excellent.

Like most things these days : politics over rule science.