Thorium Beats Fossil Fuels
Posted by
Target on 1/13/2010, 5:21 am
We could stop burning all fossil fuels within the next decade if we really wanted it.
Engineers are starting to put together some good alternatives to burning fossil fuels.
I don't feel comfortable talking about a topic that is so far from meterology but people need to know about new technologies which may replace oil.
The US ran a liquid Thorium reactor in the 1970's that could be shut down every weekend and safely turned back on every Monday.
Thorium is just a little lighter than Uranium but you could pretty much carry enough to supply all your energy needs for your life in your pocket (100 grams) and it should be cheaper than lead.
Thorium is more plentful on Earth than lead.
One of the reasons the US did not develop our use of Thorium instead of Uranium is that Thorium is not good to make bombs with, and we were in a cold war.
The liquid thorium design can not only burn up all its Thorium fuel but it can also work like a gabage diposal for some of the nuclear waste we now have like plutonium so we don't have to store it for thousands of years.
The Thorium we could use on Earth could probably last humanity for tens of thousands of years.
The waste from a liquid Thorium reactor only needs to be stored for 300 years, and that is less time than CO2 will stay in the atmosphere if we put it there.
If we start by switching our current nuclear reactors to hybrid liquid Thorium reactors then we may then be able to convince people to convert all other fossil fueled power plants as well.
If we really wanted it the whole world could be off of burning fossil fuels by 2020, but we would have to focus on it and dump money into it until we got it right.
Here's a video to back up what I'm saying:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk
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