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Finally this is getting attention! The politics of nuclear energy are so messed up that thorium reactor technology got buried under radioactive piles of propaga
by teilo 17y ago
Finally this is getting attention! The politics of nuclear energy are so messed up that thorium reactor technology got buried under radioactive piles of propaganda, because, you know, if it's nuclear it must be bad.
- electromagnetic 17y agoIt's due noting that India didn't ignore Thorium, holding 25% of the worlds reserve it saw well in advance that Th232 has a half-life as long as the known universe and gives the country energy independence. With current estimates, India essentially holds as much energy in its thorium reserves as the world has uranium reserves, meaning it itself could sell enough energy to likely run the world for 100 years, or run itself (at present demand) into the next millennium without a concern. The US is presently worrying about where to find its energy independence, while India has already found its independence for the next 1,000 years.
- sundae79 17y agoSure, except the process still hasn't been made abosultely safe when it comes to thorium.
- Kadin 17y agoNothing is "absolutely safe" -- certainly, fossil fuels aren't. Conventional uranium reactors aren't. They're extremely safe, far beyond what I consider a reasonable cause for the fear that they're treated with, but they are not "absolutely" safe. Frankly I'm not really sure what "absolutely safe" would even mean; even a hydroelectric dam could break, given an earthquake or intentional sabotage. That's not a realistic criteria for any energy source; instead, we should be talking about managing and containing risks.
- Locke1689 17y agoI'm not sure where you got the 25% number, but thorium deposits exist all over the world. In the US, the carolinas are an available source. It's about as common as lead, so i'm not really sure we're predicting any shortages anywhere yet.
- jawad 17y agoThe USGS Minerals Commodity Summary for Thorium indicates that Australia, the US, India, and Norway have 80% of the world's thorium reserve base. PDF warning: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/thorium/mcs-2009-thori.pdf http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/thorium/mcs...
- Locke1689 17y agoThanks. Interestingly enough it seems that Australia, not India, is the winner in Thorium reserves, both economically exploitable and total. In total, the US and India have equivalent reserves, while India has more economically exploitable.
- Retric 17y agoThorium was ignored because the government wanted to build a lot of nukes and uranium reactors allowed that to happen. The DoE did not have the budget or the manpower to research both solutions and private industry was not going to do the research so we ended up with uranium reactors for both military and civilian usage. Honestly, I think the US nuclear industry has done a fine job and has directly caused far fewer deaths and environmental damage than coal even ignoring the climate change issue.
- lispm 17y agoWait, here in Germany they have built a Thorium based reactor for commercial use. You can read of its fate here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300 Good luck with other variants of Thorium reactors. I'm pretty sure if there is ever one built, it will not be in Germany...