Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another data point: Even in India (which has 25% of world's Thorium reserves), it is a mystery to many, as to why the Govt. chose not to invest more heavily in Thorium based research, rather than going for traditional ones. Edit: grammar.
India seems to only go for technologies that foreign companies have developed. Guess why? Kick backs are a nice way of living the good life. This, even as recent hikes in fuel prices across the country are putting paid to the dreams of a growing economy.
Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
81–90 of 106 posts
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#82I've studied this for years and haven't found any credible reason why we couldn't do this today. But there are a lot of forces allied against Thorium in both the government, energy companies and the current nuclear industry. Senator Hatch (R) Utah with support from Harry Reid (D) Nevada has introduced a bill annually for five years to fund $200 million to research to commercialize Thorium power. Yet every year the bi…
Because uranium is cheap, so why bother? The price of nuclear energy is dominated by the cost of building the reactor, not the fuel.
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#83I hear a lot about the LFTR, and I wonder what the problem is. Is there a major technical hurdle that prevents this from seeing widespread use? Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes a really good idea never gets used because... well... because nobody really picks it up and runs with it. It's that simple sometimes. But sometimes there's some hidden gotcha.
Uranium reactors are children of war, much like hydrogen-bomb-shaped communications satellites. They are a byproduct of A-bomb research. From wikipedia:
1) Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor
2)Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default.
The focus with Uranium reactors wasn't to make reaction efficient over time, just violent. What I'm trying to say is the current atomic energy industry is heavily invested in Uranium. No wonder they're resistant to change.
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#84I hear a lot about the LFTR, and I wonder what the problem is. Is there a major technical hurdle that prevents this from seeing widespread use? Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes a really good idea never gets used because... well... because nobody really picks it up and runs with it. It's that simple sometimes. But sometimes there's some hidden gotcha.
I just wrote a bunch of comments arguing in its favor but here's an article I just found with various criticisms I hadn't seen before: http://daryanenergyblog.wordpress.com/ca/part-8-msr-lftr/
I'm not sure how credible this guy is, because he talks about thorium-232 as a dangerous nuclear waste, with a terrible 14 billion year half-life. The problems with this are (1) such a long half-life means its hardly radioactive at all, and (2) that's the only isotope of thorium, which means it's the same stuff that exists in large quantities already in natural ore.
Also I'm not sure why he thinks U-232 has to be separated from the U-233.
Aside from that, he raises some interesting objections.
He may be exaggerating the complexity of the reprocessing system. Wikipedia describes it in detail: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor#On-line_rep...
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#85If the world was serious about nuclear non-proliferation, we would have thorium reactors everywhere already. They said a few times in the video that thorium reactors can't be used for weapons, and so they are not built. Governments have decided that we need nukes, so thorium reactors do not get funding.
But if we are serious about non-proliferation, then switching to thorium reactors and controlling which new reactors get built is a much more effective strategy then the current weapon-counting efforts. Once a reactor is built and starts creating fissile material, then it is difficult to keep track of and control. But it is much harder to hide a reactor while you are building it - Iran tried and failed.
So it seems to me that thorium reactors, in addition to their efficiency, low cost and low amount of radioactive waste, could also be a useful tool in enforcing nuclear non-proliferation. We've got these reactors that cannot be used to make bombs - why don't we sign treaties saying that they are the only reactors that can be built?
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#86I've studied this for years and haven't found any credible reason why we couldn't do this today. But there are a lot of forces allied against Thorium in both the government, energy companies and the current nuclear industry. Senator Hatch (R) Utah with support from Harry Reid (D) Nevada has introduced a bill annually for five years to fund $200 million to research to commercialize Thorium power. Yet every year the bi…
Because uranium is cheap, so why bother? The price of nuclear energy is dominated by the cost of building the reactor, not the fuel.
Waste disposal/processing isn't cheap and Thorium produces significantly less waste than Uranium.
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#87I've studied this for years and haven't found any credible reason why we couldn't do this today. But there are a lot of forces allied against Thorium in both the government, energy companies and the current nuclear industry. Senator Hatch (R) Utah with support from Harry Reid (D) Nevada has introduced a bill annually for five years to fund $200 million to research to commercialize Thorium power. Yet every year the bi…
Because uranium is cheap, so why bother? The price of nuclear energy is dominated by the cost of building the reactor, not the fuel.
Did you watch the video?
The reactors he presented appeared to be much simpler (so... they'd likely be cheaper).
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
The response said what is stopping google from 'funding' this, not 'creating' this. Of course, they would benefit too.
"Funding" requires focus too.
Enough focus to say, "Hey, good idea". I think it would be better for all of us if Google got any of the potential patents as well. Even if it isn't their main business.
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#89I've studied this for years and haven't found any credible reason why we couldn't do this today. But there are a lot of forces allied against Thorium in both the government, energy companies and the current nuclear industry. Senator Hatch (R) Utah with support from Harry Reid (D) Nevada has introduced a bill annually for five years to fund $200 million to research to commercialize Thorium power. Yet every year the bi…
Because uranium is cheap, so why bother? The price of nuclear energy is dominated by the cost of building the reactor, not the fuel.
And thorium is bound to be even cheaper, as it's readily available in massive quantities.
Re: Thorium nuclear reactors: a possible solution of the energy crisis? (video)
#90I hear a lot about the LFTR, and I wonder what the problem is. Is there a major technical hurdle that prevents this from seeing widespread use? Sometimes there is, sometimes there isn't. Sometimes a really good idea never gets used because... well... because nobody really picks it up and runs with it. It's that simple sometimes. But sometimes there's some hidden gotcha.
Uranium reactors are children of war, much like hydrogen-bomb-shaped communications satellites. They are a byproduct of A-bomb research. From wikipedia: 1) Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor 2)Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default. The focus with Uranium reactors wasn't to make reaction…
Just like (almost) every spaceship designed is a descendant of the V2 rocket.
War is an incredible catalyst of the discovery process, but it unearths such discoveries just to throw them into a local optimum.