Thorium as the future of nuclear power?

Science
Thorium as the future of nuclear power?
throrium metal.jpg

Interesting article over on Wired about Kirk Sorensen and the community served by his Energy From Thorium blog. To hear these people tell it, thorium fission in fluid fuel reactors offers an idyllic vision of a boundless-energy-from-the-atom type future no one has really believed in since the early 50s. Thorium, reportedly, is abundant, safe, highly efficient as a nuclear fuel, and produces waste that is radioactive only for a few hundred years instead of tens of thousands.

10 thoughts on “Thorium as the future of nuclear power?

  1. Sean says:

    was that during the heyday of nuclear research “when the atom was your friend and would power the world”, thorium wasn’t viewed as something that could be easily weaponized and provide the yield of uranium and also didn’t allow you to build a breeder reactor to create plutonium. Of course since then there were a few Russian disasters, an English disaster, and a few American near disasters that put the general population off nuclear power. So getting funding…

  2. Krusty says:

    For all the evils of Nuclear energy, it’s about the only thing that will, on a large scale, help save what’s left of this little blue planet :(

    Solar, wind, hydro, geothermal etc. is great but has limited and specific applicaions. Not every city has the ability to utilise other clean power sources.

    The atom is, unfortunately, our future and possibly our end.

    1. miky says:

      –>@Krusty i like coming on this page and other such pages to not to see or hear those people who do not have any idea what they are talking / typing about am not saying never come to these page am asking you to do some research before you post. like what is atom as i see you are afraid of atom. everything in this world except of nothing consists with atom “nothing” is equal to vacuum. which is nothing that fore you science 101.
      and everything has good side and bad and the people like me and most of the people who came on this page love to know and explore those sides
      radiation / electricity / magnetic energy / gravitation / sound wave and few more
      they all are energy’s for same people and for same energy
      but the point is everything in this life/world/universe/dimension are dangers but if use caution + knowledge everything comes clear, and dangers factors disappear
      and the knowledge comes from exploring by people like us who love to come on such pages like this
      sorry for my bad English

  3. skyler stoudt says:

    thats some nice looking unobtainium there

  4. cdreid says:

    This is an interesting technology but be warned the website is wingnut central. Absolutely bizarre doublethink going on amongst the site owner and users. Theyve convinced themselves that nuclear is cheaper than any other fuel source despite the simple math that shows it the most expensive. They declare it a “Clean” energy source and completely ignore nuclear waste. Call it “safe” and completely ignore little things like TMI and chernobyl. They complain that “evil greenies” are all about handouts and are undeducated despite nuclear being the most heavily subsidised energy source etc etc.

    The posts on the thorium ideas are interesting. But delve any further into this site and you find hardcore reality averse delusion.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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