Replies

You make some valid pts.

One of the biggest reasons why US corps aren’t too keen on Thorium is the business plan. With LWRs you have the guaranteed fuel contracts....Thorium....Nope. The fuel is ridiculously cheap (probably close to free and is acquired from Heavy REM mines) and requires no enrichment. Once it’s separated from Heavy Rare Earth materials (Thorium and HREMs go hand in hand) and cleaned up (there will probably be some type of “reactor standards”), it’s good to go.

As a side benefit, if the US Gov’t simply reclassifies Thorium as a “National Resource” instead of low-level nuke waste, allowing it to be used for research and power, it would open up the US’s Rare Earth Mining, breaking China’s artificial monopoly. Several countries are getting ticked off at China’s arrogance on REM and wish to have an alternative supply. This could make the US a new nexus on REM and Thorium research.

Until Thorium is reclassified, the venture capitalists, research groups and designers aren’t going to go forward in the US. At best, they can theorize, plan and write research papers but a working prototype trumps a ton of scientific documents/dusty old books.

Current US nuclear infrastructure (intellect, regulatory and corporate) is Uranium based. There is no Thorium guidelines written. This must be done by the DoE and NRC before any Thorium reactors are built. Someone is gonna have to cattle-prod them....we’ve been waiting for the regulations for 30 years.

As to the US keeping its Uranium reactors and letting the outside world go to LFTR is begging for trouble. Why? Think of the BetaMax vs VCR battles of the 1970’s. Most of the critics viewed BetaMax as the better product but VCRs won due to superior marketing. VCRs were the first to hit the US markets, negotiate Hollywood content contracts, and find vendors in video rental markets. When BetaMax started to be rolled out in the US, VCR’s had cornered the key sectors and had thusly become “the standard”.

The same can be said of the Thorium vs LWR battles. Once a country gets IP (international patent) on LFTRs, and markets this to the third world (and to those countries thinking of alternatives to LWR), LWR will be viewed as a dinosaur....

1. Thorium fuel is cheap and abundant
2. LFTRs are scale-able
3. LFTRs have a much smaller land foot print
4. LFTRs don’t need large bodies of water for coolant
5. LFTRs don’t need a large tech base for support
6. LFTR’s can be built on an assembly line basis
7. LFTR’s can be built for a variety of economic ventures
8. LFTR’s wastes are shorter lived and provide medical isotopes
9. LFTR’s are safer, cheaper to build, and give off cheap energy (less than coal)

Right now in the US, Thoirum is “BetaMax” but if China builds LFTRs, mass produces them, and aggressively markets them, LWR will become the “BetaMax”. For many countries, LWRs are just too expensive, require an army of techs, have waste issues and a public who are weary of them. LFTR may not be sexy enough for some but if its good enough, and is more affordable, then many places will buy them.

The major benefit of LFTR is the promise of cheap energy (at least cheaper than fossil fuels and more reliable than solar/wind). If this is the case than these countries can offer one more incentive for western countries to vacate their industries and go to cheaper locals. China stands to clean up big time if LFTR pays off. It relaxed environmental laws, friendlier labor laws, tax incentives and now cheap energy could be the death blow to western industries.

Meanwhile, the west relies on fossil fuels, bogus solar/wind companies with high subsidies and an aging LWR fleet on the verge of retirement. Simply put, we’ll lose the energy war as China will undercut our energy costs.