Thorium: An energy solution - THORIUM REMIX 2011

For those who haven't seen it, I highly recommend this video on liquid-fluoride thorium reactors (LFTR): [VIDEO] ! I passed the video by my uncle who was an expert/engineer dealing with control and safety of water cooled reactors. This is what he had to say: "I found the video very informative technically, as well as being effective in countering many of the the arguments of those who profess to be against nuclear power in any form. I also found the details of the design of the liquid thorium fluoride reactor intriguing. To become an advocate for further investment in this concept, I would have to learn more about how the concept deals with the safety issues involved in the handling of fluorine gas and fluoride materials."

Solar is not a viable means for today's energy consumption, and it certainly won't be a viable means for tomorrow's energy consumption. The energy race has been decided already, and the only answer to fossil fuels is Liquid Floride Thoriam Reactors (LFTR). It's an alternative form of nuclear energy that has been around since the Manhattan Project. Unlike the current nuclear power plants of today, it is impossible for a nuclear explosion to occur, there is no waste generated (well, there is about 1% waste, but the waste generated is actually a very rare metal NASA uses to power deep space satellites), and Thorium (the equivalent to Uranium) is 1000x more abundant than Uranium. LFTR will be the worlds core energy source within 30 years. China is the only country actively developing a LFTR program- if it comes to fruition, they could be the power suppliers of tomorrow. Learn about it in 5 minutes: [VIDEO]

I assume it would cost a lot in R&D although other nations are currently experimenting LFTR. Beside that, I don't think the cost-benefit is at a point where it would make sense. It's one thing to produce energy but it's another entirely to distribute it. We need to develop both source and distribution. There is a great video on thorium reactor that was posted here or on reddit a while ago. [VIDEO] That's the extend of my knowledge on thorium.

When nuclear research was first being developed, it was for the specific purpose of building the bomb. When the war ended, and the industry switched to civilian applications, they decided to go with Uranium because they had already worked out many of the issues. Still, the US Airforce wanted a nuclear-powered bomber shortly after the Navy showed their nuclear sub and before ICBM's deprecated "end-of-days" long-range bombers. A water-contained reactor wouldn't work in an airplane, so they funded the development of the MSR (molten-salt-reactor). Unfortunately, when they shuddered the project after the implementation of practical ICBMs, industry politics discredited MSR's in favour of the reactor-types we have now. After fukushima, a grassroots campaign has been undertaken to resume research of MSR's as a replacement of fossil fuels for scalable carbon-free energy creation. If you are interested, you can get a great overview here: [VIDEO]

Uranium reactors use something like 2% of the total energy available in the uranium. Molten-salt-reactors use something like 98% of the available energy. Additionally, the 2% that is waste contain extremely rare derivatives that can be used as cancer "smartbombs", metals pivotal to deep space NASA missions, etc. This has a pretty good overview: [VIDEO]

[VIDEO] (skip to 1:42:05) Thorium comes up with rare earth minerals.. we can use it as a sustainable source of energy.

This could be a boon for the Tar sands in Alberta. As I understand it a very large amount of oil there is used to create heat for the purpose of releasing the oil from the tar sands and generating nuclear (ie steam) power there could create a good amount of lower temp heat for use in industry (also heating homes if such a project were undertaken). This could really help the oil sands be less carbon emitting. I do wish it was a thorium based project though. Gordon McDowell was active in Calgary trying to spread awareness of the technology. Sadly it always feels "a decade away" ... [VIDEO]