"Even with military and corporate support, the transition to a new type of nuclear power generation is likely to be slow, at least in the U.S. Light-water reactors are already established, and no regulations exist to govern other reactor designs."
Thorium reactors can be built small and be numerous. They can have power capabilities as little as 50 megawatts and can be safely built close to the end user. With Thorium reactors closer to the user, transmission losses are greatly reduced. Such losses can be up to 30 percent with present power plants. No need for expensive superconductive transmission technology to accomplish long distance transmission requirements. Such, by the way, are envisioned for large windmill and solar array farms forced by regulation to be far from populated areas.
It is apparent that the foot dragging in this nation's energy needs is the U.S. Congress and Senate who put more energy into devising ways to regulate our energy production than the energy that is created. I recently asked my U.S. Congressman if he ever heard of Thorium power. He did not have a clue.
There’s also plasma arc, which vaporizes waste of all kinds.