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> What’s rare is finding deposits that can be mined profitably, in part because most contain radioactive thorium. (from the linked older article) Sounds a bit
by nnq 13y ago
> What’s rare is finding deposits that can be mined profitably, in part because most contain radioactive thorium. (from the linked older article)
Sounds a bit weird: Would mining a thorium rich deposit have higher environmentally related costs? Isn't the thorium itself valuable as well?
- jofer 13y ago> Would mining a thorium rich deposit have higher environmentally related costs? Yes, absolutely! > Isn't the thorium itself valuable as well? Not at present. It's basically a waste byproduct at the moment. If it becomes widely used as a nuclear fuel in molten salt reactors, that might change. It is used in a few alloys, etc, but there aren't a large number of industrial uses for it.
- adventured 13y agoSounds like a classic scenario in which one should massively stockpile thorium, or find a way to buy ownership in such. We seem to find valuable uses for nearly everything over time (and history is littered with examples of 'tossed to the side' materials that are later worth a fortune).
- mkr-hn 13y agoLike gasoline.
- Tuna-Fish 13y agoThorium prices are really not going to rise all that much. People have a hard time understanding what the six-seven orders of magnitude difference in energy density between nuclear and chemical fuels means in practice. Basically, even if the entire world switches to being powered only by thorium, thorium will still mostly be a waste product. For the amount of digging you need to power a single coal plant you could power the entire earth and still have most of your production idle.
- markmassie 13y agoThat's one of the major problems with thorium. It is much more abundant than uranium, but uranium is mined from uranium-dense deposits. There are no equivalent thorium-rich deposits. Instead, thorium is sprinkled across the Earth's surface. So one has to sift through more earth to mine thorium than it takes to mine an equivalent amount of uranium, which is an often overlooked environmental disadvantage of the thorium cycle.
- anigbrowl 13y agoYeah, but you need extra protection for your workers, handling the ore, not contaminating everywhere between the mine and your eventual customer. All this costs money, and thorium is available from many sources so it may cost more money than your customer is willing to pay. Mining's a messy business, it's not like you just bring a lead box with you and drop an occasional nugget of thorium in while you get on with your other work.