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Norway is building thorium reactor

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Re: Norway is building thorium reactor

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This isn't one of the fancy liquid fluoride thorium reactors that people immediately think of. It's a scheme for incorporating thorium into the fuel mix in existing reactors. Still very cool.

awww, i got all excited :(

Still a step closer.

I'm not a genuine nuke geek, but hopefully there are a few around who can shed some light into what sort of impact the commercial use of thorium as a fuel is on the viability of the fuel in the long-run.

Re: Norway is building thorium reactor

#7
While germany is getting out of nuclear power altogether... their "Energiewende" plan is very ambitious but i wonder if its not better to invest into nuclear power to make it saver instead of getting rid of it completely. I dont know much about it though, what do experts think?

Re: Norway is building thorium reactor

#8
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

awww, i got all excited :(

Still a step closer. I'm not a genuine nuke geek, but hopefully there are a few around who can shed some light into what sort of impact the commercial use of thorium as a fuel is on the viability of the fuel in the long-run.

A good starting point is Bill Gates TED Talk Innovating to Zero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I

Re: Norway is building thorium reactor

#9
post #3

This isn't one of the fancy liquid fluoride thorium reactors that people immediately think of. It's a scheme for incorporating thorium into the fuel mix in existing reactors. Still very cool.

This is not the first time Norway has been interested in Thorium, already in the sixties they had plans to exploit their rather large Thorium deposit. India also has large deposits and also has a trial reactor scheme going similar to the one in Norway with Thorium-Plutonium MOX fuel.

There is a lot of information about Thorium on this site: http://energyfromthorium.com/

Re: Norway is building thorium reactor

#10
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still a step closer. I'm not a genuine nuke geek, but hopefully there are a few around who can shed some light into what sort of impact the commercial use of thorium as a fuel is on the viability of the fuel in the long-run.

A good starting point is Bill Gates TED Talk Innovating to Zero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaF-fq2Zn7I

Great talk.

Gates's foundation has made a handful of bad investments (generally small) but I'm generally really impressed with the thought they put into where to invest and why.

While it's a little bit scary that Japan and Germany are both trending (more than trending) away from nuclear, maybe that's not the worst thing in the world. Neither country will go for coal. Both countries will need to invest in other technologies (some basic, some consumer-oriented) in order to meet their emissions reductions goals.

But I get scared about the possibility of additional countries backing away from nuclear.

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