GoFuckYourself.com - Adult Webmaster Forum - View Single Post - NASA Engineer: Virtually Unlimited, Cheap And Clean Nuclear Power Can Be Had Now With Thorium

Bill8 · 08-11-2012, 03:16 PM

the problems of thorium are pretty significant, but, if it can be made to work, it's product, U233, would be far safer than the plutonium produced by standard fast breeder reactors.

And, there are much much larger amounts of thorium than of uranium.

it really could be the basis of a fairly long lasting electricity economy - if the current bugs in the reactor designs can be worked out.

There are two problems - first, you need to perfect the thorium breeder reactors that use "trigger" plutonium to convert thorium into fissionable uranium 233.

Then, you need to perfect reactors that can use the U233 as fuel.

So far all the test reactors ended up producing electricity that is significantly more expensive than reactors using U235.

So it's not starting out as the next 'killer app' of electrical generation. Wind and solar are cheaper.

08-11-2012, 03:16 PM
Bill8 Confirmed User Join Date: Oct 2001 Posts: 1,901	the problems of thorium are pretty significant, but, if it can be made to work, it's product, U233, would be far safer than the plutonium produced by standard fast breeder reactors. And, there are much much larger amounts of thorium than of uranium. it really could be the basis of a fairly long lasting electricity economy - if the current bugs in the reactor designs can be worked out. There are two problems - first, you need to perfect the thorium breeder reactors that use "trigger" plutonium to convert thorium into fissionable uranium 233. Then, you need to perfect reactors that can use the U233 as fuel. So far all the test reactors ended up producing electricity that is significantly more expensive than reactors using U235. So it's not starting out as the next 'killer app' of electrical generation. Wind and solar are cheaper.