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Actually, there's a great reason why large, resource-constrained countries like China have declared that they will begin developing thorium-based nuclear energy
by egiva 15y ago
Actually, there's a great reason why large, resource-constrained countries like China have declared that they will begin developing thorium-based nuclear energy - the technology has the potential to be clean and safe.
Thorium is great because to generate a reaction, you also need that energy input (a laser). There's no chance for a meltdown because if the power turns off, you lose the laser and the reaction stops dead in it's tracks.
Thorium was abandoned mostly in the 60s because governments wanted uranium-based technology with it's nasty by-products (namely, plutonium for bomb production!). So, arguably the better, cleaner thorium technology was abandoned. Such goes geo-politics during the Cold War!
Don't discount the small-scale applications in a car or other vehicle either. It's 50 years away, but a thorium-based small-scale reactor is possible.
- gus_massa 15y agoThere is some research in thorium reactors, but they work in a very different way. The thorium reactors are fission reactors. The process is a little more complex, but eventually the atom split and gives a lot of energy. It doesn't need any heat to produce the nuclear reactions. (Some projects uses molten thorium salts, but it is for mechanical reasons, not for nuclear reasons.) There is also research in fusion reactors, for example with deuterium or tritium. It is a very different process. They need a lot of heat to make the atoms collide and produce the nuclear reactions. (Some models use laser to heat and contain the atoms.) The two types of reactors are very different, and the fuels can't be interchanged. So it's very strange that they use lasers to heat the thorium.