- Thorium, an element named after the Norse god of thunder, may soon contribute to the world’s electricity supply
I've asked a few people who really oughtta know about thorium reactors (benefits of growing up in Los Alamos - you end up knowing a lot of particle physicists) and I've yet to get a straight, comprehensive answer out of anyone. I ask "so what's the thing everyone's missing with thorium? 'cuz to hear the popular press talk it's a magic bullet." They come back with "thorium.... eh." I think the real problem is getting any new nuclear reactor off the ground is essentially impossible: World Nuclear Association When you're talking about applying for a permit in 2007 to build a reactor in 2020, you're talking about fundamentally proven designs. India might build one... but if I were to name one country with a driving need for a shit ton of plutonium, it'd be Pakistan. If I were to name two, the other one would be India. China has made its choice - it's going hard into hydro, solar and wind because the latter two can be exported and the former dovetails nicely with its urbanization initiatives. So what I've been able to determine is that thorium reactors should work, but that level of confidence hasn't cut it in the nuclear industry since the late '60s, and the guys who actually have the know-how and incentive to build nuclear reactors are A-OK with uranium, thanks. Thorium tends to get bandied about by the armchair guys.Following a 30-year period in which few new reactors were built, it is expected that six new units may come on line by 2020, four of those resulting from 16 licence applications made since mid-2007 to build 24 new nuclear reactors.
Not sure if that's all China is doing, they recently announced they want the first thorium reactor online within 10 years instead of 25. If it wasn't for Nixon cutting funding for thorium in the 60s in favour of plutonium for research into nuclear bombs, most American reactors these days could very well have been using thorium. My guess is if China get's their first thorium reactor online, fully functioning, they are going to multiply them balls to the walls much like they did their coal plants.
Hadn't heard that. I remain skeptical. Bill McKibben does a pretty nice breakdown on the economics of nuclear power in Eaarth where he argues that once you get rid of the externalities, nuclear isn't much of a saver economically or environmentally. China, on the other hand, is all about externalities so that would be a reason for them to pursue it, particularly for export. Dunno. Got a link? I'm curious.
Here is the original article about the information: link Who knows what could happen. I have been following Lightbridge Corporation for a while now. They say the hard part is not the technology, just convincing governments to get on board. Edit: Also, I don't know about them exporting this if they do get it working. I think China is starting to clean up it's act, the air pollution problem is beyond critical.
Interesting. This gives me pause, though: Of course, living in California I see their coal pollution, so what the hell. Learned something new today. Thanks!Researchers working on the project said they were under unprecedented "war-like" pressure to succeed and some of the technical challenges they faced were difficult, if not impossible to solve in such a short period.
I heard about this a few years ago. I think that it won't catch on until coal/fossil fuel becomes totally unsustainable. there's too many people fighting against new nuclear fuel, i think, to get thorium off the ground, despite the merits.