Posted on 05/17/2011 8:28:24 AM PDT by jmaroneps37
Back in the 1950´s RC Briant, a scientist at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, worked to develop a long range nuclear powered plane to carry atomic bombs and first proposed reactor fuel be dissolved in liquid fluoride salts. A test reactor proved Briant´s idea both feasible and advantageous.
Later Alvin Weinberg, Director of Oak Ridge saw that molten fluoride salt could harness thorium-an abundant if slightly radioactive substance-and a 2nd reactor -the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment was built and operated for several years.
It proved control rods were unnecessary and a liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) could be safe and serve to decontaminate nuclear waste. The push for atomic weapons, however, shelved the non weapon material producing LFTR.
But the scientists were impressed with these reactors. A whopping 98% of thorium was consumed with this new process whereas only .6% of uranium was used up with traditional solid fuel reactors that left behind ample nuclear waste.
When stacked up against the energy costs associated with various sources, thorium is stunning. One lb. of Thorium according to Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia is equal to 200 lbs. of uranium, or a breathtaking 3.5 million lbs. of coal.
Fuel costs for thorium are a tiny $0.00004/kWh versus coal and natural gas at less than 10 cents/kWh; conventional nuclear at approximately 10 cents /kWh; wind appx. 14 cents /kWh; solar thermal about 26 cents/kWh and solar photovoltaic a hefty 40 cents/kWh.
The U.S.G.S.’ estimate of 915,000 tons of high quality thorium ore (just considering holdings in Idaho and Montana) establish the U.S. as arguably the #1 thorium holding nation in the world.
Now if Obama is known for anything it is for his majestic non-sequiturs. His 2011 State of the Union….. He stated: “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment”. …..
(Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...
To see the worst cartoon ever made of home grown agitprop, Google “Omnicron and the Sputnik”. It aired once on channel 56 in Boston when I was a kid and they must have had the phones ringing off the hook because my parents couldn’t get through to complain.
I have NEVER understood why thorium reactors aren’t all over the place. WAY better power generation, proven tech - in fact old tech, not pie in the sky stuff, and very safe.
It’s insane.
This is how this will play out. The Chicoms will develop the technology for their general use and using a chinese owned company, mine all of OUR thorium for pennies on the dollar and ship it all back to China. Meanwhile, obama will be running around trying to gin up more support for windmills, etc.
China and India both have been working on this for some time now.... Us, not so much.
Freepers get it. There have been numerous threads on Thorium but new technologies get a cold shoulder if older, competing technologies already own politicians.
china europe india etc will make the thorium plants and obama will pass laws forcing companies to step up and hire do nothing union members.
You are probably right.
Thorium has great stationary energy potential.
But I don’t see it as a alternative to oil.
Electricity as transportation energy isn’t constrained by the cost of generating electricity. It is storage and recharging limitations that keep it from mainstream. Thorium doesn’t solve either problem.
In the US you find home heating oil concentrated in the NE, natural gas in the Midwest and South, and electric heat in the form of heat pumps in a narrow band through the East, Midwest, and West.
Large parts of the country don't need regualar heating BTW.
Concentration allows vendors to use standardized equipment competitively to move and vend the product.
So, thorium has this thing ~ a small amount of radiation. Ain't no thang but first you have to mine it and remove the other materials associated with it. Right off the bat you get "rare earths" and they have their own value. But you get a lot of dust and dirt and it can be "contaminated" with radioactive particles. It is considered the height of safety to REMOVE THEM, and that's easier said than done.
We have been running without our best rare earth mine shut down while it's retrofitted to remove the radioactive debris which, however small, is still within the range to be considered "harmful" with extended exposure.
So, there's no widespread major use for thorium as yet, and it's a "dirty fuel" ~ and has to be cleaned before use.
Starting today it'd probably take about 5 years to get enough thorium into the supply chain to be used safely.
It’s about time people start talking about Thorium.
The article is full of 'mistakes'.
Great to talk but bad to intentional mislead like the author does.
Which is it? Old technology OR new technology?
Because nuclear power in the US (and in the NATO western countries) was a spin-off of military (ie weapons grade) fuel processing. So we used the uranium cycle instead of thorium cycle in our power reactors.
I absolutely agree, but here’s how I see this playing out, if we can get enough idiots out of the way:
Supplant natural gas generation with nukes. Develop NG as a transportation fuel. It can be shipped in pipelines, we already have pipeline capacity, LNG terminals are capable of storing large amounts of energy and the boil-off can be used for local power generation or distribution.
Right now, NG is being sucked up into the power generation market at a very rapid pace, because it is the only viable alternative to coal.
Both. The core tech - how to generate power using thorium - is decades old. However, as with any tech, it continually evolves (if only at the research level). Some of the newer thorium reactor tech shows great potential and even includes a way to use uranium wrapped thorium in existing light water reactors.
Exactly, but it’s amazing for electrical generation. :)
Don’t know how it is in the USA, but here most of the infrastructure needed to support NG vehicles is already in place because about half the gas stations have propane pumps.
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