Thorium Energy Can Be a World-Changer

At the end of this effort, we will have destroyed our 100 tonnes of highly-enriched uranium from weapons. We will have destroyed our 100 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium from decommissioned weapons. We will have destroyed the 700 tonnes of plutonium and other actinides in the spent nuclear fuel. We will have essentially eliminated the issue of spent nuclear fuel as a concern. We will have replaced the coal and gas electrical generation in the country. We will have added enough additional electrical generation to the nation’s grid to power electric cars rather than gasoline-powered ones. We’ll have cleaner air. We’ll have cleaner water. We’ll keep hundreds of billions of dollars in our country because we’ll be energy-independent. And we will have solved the energy crisis permanently.

All of this is unlocked by the fundamental properties of thorium. We can make it happen. May we have the wisdom to do so. _KirkSorensen

Kirk Sorensen wants to shift energy production away from fossil fuels toward a sustainable method of nuclear fission based upon thorium. Thorium is three times more plentiful than uranium, is less prone to being used for nuclear weapons proliferation, and can be used sustainably while burning up dangerous weapons-grade nuclear materials, and potentially hazardous nuclear waste from more conventional fission plants.

Thorium can be used in accelerator driven nuclear reactors, can be utilised in liquid fluoride thorium reactors, and now comes news that a company called Thorium One is developing a thorium - plutonium - MOX fuel that can be used in "existing infrastructure for nuclear reactors."

The Vancouver, Canada-based company is attempting to fund the development of a new fuel design—called Thorium Plutonium MOX—that it says can be used in existing infrastructure for nuclear reactors in the production of nuclear energy that does not create bomb-usable waste.

There are currently 440 nuclear reactors operating in the world with uranium-based nuclear energy (see Nuclear power is green power, says expert).

...The company is on a mission to become an integrated international nuclear fuel company, developing its product for nuclear utilities using the chemical element thorium, instead of uranium.

“Thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel that can act as a supplement to uranium in nuclear reactors,” he said.

The waste product of the thorium fuel cycle, uranium-233, can be separated and reprocessed or recycled for use in new fuel, Thorium One said. _CleanTech_via_NextBigFuture

The best source for learning about the promise of thorium power is Kirk Sorensen's website, Energy from Thorium (EfT). The archives of EfT are loaded with well written tutorials on various aspects of thorium power. The sidebar has links to useful videos, articles, websites, books, and piles of PDF documentation dealing with thorium energy and other aspects of nuclear energy.

Thorium offers an opportunity to turn weapons and waste into useful and abundant, clean, sustainable energy.

Why haven't we heard more about Thorium from our government, our news media, our thought leaders in academia and punditry, and the rest of the "leading lights" of society?

Cross-posted at Al Fin Energy