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he Department of Energy said Thursday it expects to get underground next week to begin investigating the cause and extent of a mysterious radiation leak from the government's nuclear waste dump in southeastern New Mexico. Officials said the inspections of the shafts that workers will use to access the half-mile-deep repository are complete and they are preparing to send an initial crew of eight into the mine early next week. The dump has been shuttered since mid-February, when radiation was released above ground and into the air around Carlsbad, contaminating at least 17 workers with low doses of radiation. Four...

UVU develops innovative nuclear technology 10 comments, Tuesday, February 4th, 2014, by KresLynn Knouse, in News UVU’s office of Technology Commercialization is currently in the process of developing a unique model of a nuclear reactor known as the molten salt reactor, or MSR. MSRs have the ability to recycle the 270,000 metric tons of toxic waste generated from traditional light water reactors into a substantial power supply.MSR development has received increased attention from countries such as China, India, Australia, and Japan due to the efficiency, safety and ‘eco-friendly’ features of the system.MSR design innovators have boasted the potential to boost...

The nuclear race is on. China is upping the ante dramatically on thorium nuclear energy. Scientists in Shanghai have been told to accelerate plans (sorry for the pun) to build the first fully-functioning thorium reactor within ten years, instead of 25 years as originally planned. “This is definitely a race. China faces fierce competition from overseas and to get there first will not be an easy task”,” says Professor Li Zhong, a leader of the programme. He said researchers are working under “warlike” pressure to deliver. Good for them. They may do the world a big favour. They may even...

Thorium, a Safer Nuclear Alternative? Added by admin on April 3, 2011.Saved under TourismTags: Areva, Brave New Climate Blog, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Dr. Helen Caldicott, Fukushima, George Monbiot, Grenoble, Jean-Marie Loiseaux, Joe Bonometti, Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie de Grenoble, LFTR- Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, Lightbridge, molten-salt nuclear reactor, Oak Ridge National Lab, Professor Barry Brook, Roger Brisso, Thorium, Thorium Energy Alliance, US Atomic Energy Commission, Wired As France, dependent on 58 reactors for 75-80% of its energy, firmly reasserts its faith in nuclear in the wake of Fukushima, China is headed towards a clean...

Chinese scientists urged to develop new thorium nuclear reactors by 2024 PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 18 March, 2014, 11:42pm UPDATED : Wednesday, 19 March, 2014, 4:54am Stephen Chen \   Beijing wants to cut its reliance on coal-fired power. Photo: AP The deadline to develop a new design of nuclear power plant has been brought forward by 15 years as the central government tries to reduce the nation's reliance on smog-producing coal-fired power stations.A team of scientists in Shanghai had originally been given 25 years to try to develop the world's first nuclear plant using the radioactive element thorium as...

Atomic Car Revisited: Thorium Could Power A Vehicle for 100 Years? By George Kennedy 5 hours ago   A car that could run for 100 years on one tank of fuel? It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but it is just what a company is apparently claiming possible with the use of an atomic fuel that was abandoned during the Nixon administration. We’re talking about the sounds-too-good-to-be-true substance called “Thorium.”Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. It was discovered in 1828 by a Norwegian mineralogist and identified by a Swedish chemist, who then named it after the Norse god, Thor.ATOMIC...

Thorium China Is Using US Research to Take the Lead on Thorium Reactor Development   By Derek MeadA CAD render of an old Oak Ridge molten salt reactor design, via Flibe Energy In the fracking-dominated and carbon-obsessed United States, we often forget that carbon-neutral energy doesn't have to simply be solar and wind. There's also nuclear power, of which alternative, safe power cycles exist, ones that were first developed by American researchers. But after years of sitting around, that research is finally being put to use–by China.We've long discussed the thorium dream in depth here at Motherboard, largely because it's oh...

The science, technology and economics of using Thorium in a power generating nuclear reactor and the future of energy over the next 20 to 50 years

Thorium policy in all western nations undermines the successful development of a domestic rare earth market. All of the rare earths that most western mining companies are willing to process are what they call bastnasites or carbonatites. They select these rare earths not because of the high ratios of rare earths but simply the absence of thorium. Manufacturers using rare earth elements in their products are relocating their manufacturing base inside China. The jobs in manufacturing transfer from the United States and western Europe into the Chinese mainland. This impacts consumer electronics, green technologies & military technology.

The Dual-Fluid Reactor, a MSR (Molten Salt Reactor) was entered into the Greentec contest by Berlin’s Institute for Solid-State Nuclear Physics. MSRs and other advanced nuclear designs auger a CO2-free energy future and represent clear improvements in nuclear safety, efficiency, and waste management when compared to conventional nuclear. The Dual-Fluid Reactor (DFR) can also be used as a source of industrial process heat to make hydrogen and synthetic fuels.

Taylor Wilson built a fusion reactor at age 14 and remains interested in nuclear technology. So, at 19, he has presented his idea for a small reactor concept that uses molten salt to make the smaller reactor both more powerful and more efficient than their cousins. Wilson's fission reactor operates at 600 to 700 degrees Celsius. And because the laws of thermodynamics say that high temperatures lead to high efficiencies, this reactor is 45 to 50 percent efficient. Traditional steam turbine systems are only 30 to 35 percent efficient because their reactors run at low temperatures of about 200 to...

Bill Gates Is Beginning to Dream the Thorium Dream By Brian Merchant Image: Wikimedia Mention thorium—an alternative fuel for nuclear power—to the right crowd, and faces will alight with the same look of spirited devotion you might see in, say, Twin Peaks and Chicago Cubs fans. People love thorium against the odds. And now Bill Gates has given them a new reason to keep rooting for the underdog element. TerraPower, the Gates-chaired nuclear power company, has garnered attention for pursuing traveling wave reactor tech, which runs entirely on spent uranium and would rarely need to be refueled. But the concern...

Bill Gates’ nuclear company explores molten salt reactors, thorium July 23rd, 2013 Posted by Mark Halper Bill Gates TED Jurvetson Flickr Opening the nuclear Gates. TerraPower, Bill Gates’ nuclear company, is now open to reactor types other than its traveling wave design. The traveling wave remains the company’s focus, although Terra has morphed it into more of a “standing wave.” TerraPower, the Bill Gates-chaired nuclear company that is developing a fast reactor, is now investigating alternative reactor technologies, including thorium fuel and molten salt reactors. While the company’s “big bet” continues to be on a fast reactor that TerraPower calls...

Mark Halper delivers a thorium year-in-review at the Thorium Energy Alliance's 5th conference, in Chicago on May 30th 2013. The plot thickens....

The western world has within its capacity far more than enough rare earths (including heavy rare earths) to meet its own industrial demand. It is an unwillingness to process material containing thorium which is ultimately impeding our high tech manufacturing sector.

NEW YORK, July 1, 2013 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- U.S. Rare Earths, Inc., "UREE", UREE +8.00% , a rare earths exploration company with mining claims in Idaho, Montana, and Colorado, announced today the appointment of J. Robert Kerrey, former U.S. Senator and Governor of Nebraska, to the Company's Board of Directors. "We are delighted to add an independent Director with Bob's wide range of experience, and his familiarity with critical issues of national importance. It should now become clear that we are in the process at UREE of building an extremely accomplished team on the Board of Directors. Our intention...

My last article about thorium as an alternative nuclear reactor fuel drew way more readers than I expected. I intentionally glossed over the complexities of specific reactor designs for the sake of simplicity, but in this article I want to go deeper. This article explains some of the differences between traditional uranium reactors and molten salt thorium reactors (MSRs).

Learn more about Thorium reactors and the potential. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY (5 minute overview) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbyr7jZOllI (36 minutes...more "techie") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZR0UKxNPh8 (about 1 hour....symposium like discussion)

The only source of energy that can meet global demand while avoiding greenhouse gas emissions is nuclear power. But our perception of nuclear power is coloured by issues of safety, radiotoxic waste, and the threat of nuclear proliferation. Yet there is a safer alternative to current nuclear technology… Author Robert Cywinski Professor, Special Research Advisor at University of Huddersfield Disclosure Statement Robert Cywinski receives funding from the EPSRC and STFC The Conversation is funded by CSIRO, Melbourne, Monash, RMIT, UTS, UWA, Canberra, CDU, Deakin, Flinders, Griffith, JCU, La Trobe, Massey, Murdoch, Newcastle. QUT, Swinburne, UniSA, USC, USQ, UTAS, UWS and...

  Bill Gates' Dream for a Nuclear-Powered Future Is Almost Here By Maxx Chatsko | More Articles | Save For Later March 4, 2014 | Comments (1) Is this the future of clean energy? Source: TerraPower.Things may be different today, but in its heyday, Microsoft was a game-changing company that forever altered the way the world interacted with computers. The creative genius and foresight of Bill Gates has paid off in a significant way: He's the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of $76 billion, according to Forbes. While Gates still advises Microsoft, he has turned much of his...