Posted on 05/17/2011 1:33:00 PM PDT by ckilmer
BTTT
Interesting. I’ve never heard of these. I need to do some fact-checking, but if they are as much the perfect energy source as you say, then I’m going to start asking “why not” too.
That's the very last thing that they want.
They want to turn the country into a pristine wilderness, with them in their lakefront dachas and all the smelly peasants herded into urban prisons where they can be controlled and culled more conveniently.
Maybe someday the Left will allow us to aspire to be as great as France. *rolling eyes*
The answer to this guy’s question is buried in his analysis:
Why isn’t the world using Thorium (article doesn’t say this, but there’s at least 4 times more Thorium in the world than Uranium)?
“Furthermore, they do not produce plutonium . . .”
Adm. Rickover made this call back in the 50’s.
If you use a cup of Uranium in a reactor, you get about 3/4 cup of Plutonium out.
This is the same as saying, “If I use a cup of silver to produce power, I get 3/4 of a cup of gold, plus the power.”
This was a no brainer call for Rickover. We put in Uranium and we get Hydrogen Bomb flour out the other side? Thorium may be cheaper and safer, and the waste is nearly zero, but I can turn silver into gold with a Uranium reactor and get power for free.
The equation is changing now, of course. Any shit hole country declaring they want nuclear power is declaring they want to build bombs, and it is an open secret in diplomacy that this is the case.
Iran, Venezuela, and others have made the same calculation. If they wanted nuclear power, they’d have pursued Thorium as both India and China are doing today in all due haste.
The average wage slave is too ignorant or preoccupied to get this, and no politician dare raise this in public discourse.
It’ll take AQ wasting Denver or Seattle or San Diego before anybody does anything about it.
Ever wonder why Japan uses Uranium instead of Thorium? Not a stupid person in Japan, but they use Uranium too knowing all the risks. They have declared never to produce or use a nuke, but here they are making Plutonium by the bushel.
You and I may be the only two Americans who really get it, there is a powerful conspiracy that wants to enslave us by taking away everything we need to be prosperous.
I did a google search and got a half million hits. I have been reading about these for a couple years, still haven’t seen the negatives other than original design cost.
This thorium reactor thing sounds AWESOME! I’m going to remove the “Tornado” from the air intake of my car and replace it with a thorium reactor. I’m sure I’ll get 100 mpg then!!!
If Thorium can be produced in the U.S. and requires digging in the ground, 0bama and the other Demonrats will oppose its use. End of story.
Even Obama recently touted nuclear... although, like most of his words, they were apparently empty rhetoric.
One would think that the greenies would like to go from millions of tons of pollutants (including 48 tons of mercury) per year, to zero... their own propaganda says, "Out of the entire US electric industry, coal-fired power plants contribute 96% of sulfur dioxide emissions (SO2), 93% of nitrogen oxide emissions (NOx), 88% of carbon dioxide emissions (CO2) and 99% of mercury emissions. (Clean the Air, “Power Plant Air Pollution Problem,” Fact sheet)."... but then, they'd have to be honest and consistent, or else reveal the truth that they simply want America to be less prosperous.
Thorium, US energy independence and Obama´s Sputnik moment
By Coach Collins, on May 17th, 2011
When stacked up against the energy costs associated with various sources, thorium is stunning. One lb. of Thorium according to Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia is equal to 200 lbs. of uranium, or a breathtaking 3.5 million lbs. of coal.
Fuel costs for thorium are a tiny $0.00004/kWh versus coal and natural gas at less than 10 cents/kWh; conventional nuclear at approximately 10 cents /kWh; wind appx. 14 cents /kWh; solar thermal about 26 cents/kWh and solar photovoltaic a hefty 40 cents/kWh.
The U.S.G.S.’ estimate of 915,000 tons of high quality thorium ore (just considering holdings in Idaho and Montana) establish the U.S. as arguably the #1 thorium holding nation in the world.
Now if Obama is known for anything it is for his majestic non-sequiturs. His 2011 State of the Union proves the point. He stated: ” At stake is whether new jobs and industries take root in this country, or somewhere else. It’s whether the hard work and industry of our people is rewarded.” Later on, he claimed “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment”.
While Obama curiously mentioned Oak Ridge in his address he did so highlighting efforts to basically tweak existing nuclear technology and ignored thorium reactors and the (if I can plagiarize his speech a bit) hard work and industry of our people (plus the millions of dollars already spent) to develop them.
Obama also seems to be oblivious to the fact that a Chinese delegation visited Oak Ridge in the autumn of 2010 and expressed interest in thorium fuel to scientists there. America’s economic crisis demands a quantum reduction in energy generation costs through thorium based power and the spectacular job creating dynamics these massive savings entail.
Following up, no doubt, on their visit to Oak Ridge, the Chinese announced within days of Obama’s 2011 State of the Union Address that they intend to not only develop a research & development effort to create molten salt thorium reactors, but also to develop and control intellectual property rights to thorium for their own advantage! The Sputnik moment indeed has arrived.
http://www.coachisright.com/thorium-us-energy-independence-and-obama%C2%B4s-sputnik-moment/#
Who does one pay for the fuel cost of wind and solar?
Nobody talks about nuclear power because if you so much as whisper it, you’ll be clubbed to death by Birkenstock wearing former hippies. Even if you could get the various permits from the Obama machine (never happen) you’d still be picketed and sued into oblivion. No politician in the current circumstances would risk so much as proposing a committee to research the possibility of building more nuclear reactors. It would take a sea change in Washington and a power company with deep pockets to pull off one tiny new reactor.
I’d like to see legislation preventing lawsuits once a project is permitted. (Snail darters, anyone?)
“Nobody talks about nuclear power because if you so much as whisper it, you’ll be clubbed to death by Birkenstock wearing former hippies.”
Mention damming a river for hydroelectric, and see what THAT gets you. The cheapest form of energy we have, and it’s even RENEWABLE AND CLEAN, but the left HATES IT.
Not enough graft to spread around.
Environmentalism is a luxury — the only time when you can afford environmentalism is when you have a prosperous economy and people are not freezing and starving.
The best “shovel ready” reactor designs we have today are called Generation III. Japan already has four such reactors in the field. Thorium designs are classed as Generation IV, designs which still need some development before first deployment.
India and China are the leaders in thorium reactor research. Watch them carefully.
Nuclear? No way. See Japan.
Hydro? Nope. Might hurt some little fish.
Coal? On Obama’s hit list. Forget it.
Nat Gas? See coal above.
Wind? Solar? Yeah right. Like those are going to power your big screen TV, iPod, PS3, PC, toaster and your cool greenie electric car.
Also do a search on another neat new inherently-safe technology “pebble reactor”. (Currently being constructed in China.)
They call that conspiracy project watermelon. :)
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