Thorium Energy Alliance on Senator Marco Rubio's S. 2093 for Thorium, Rare Earths and Manufacturing

YouTube ^ | Aug 26, 2019 | Gordon McDowell

[BwanaNdege]

John Kutsch of Thorium Energy Alliance and James Kennedy of ThREE Consulting speak (briefly) on why a Rare Earth Cooperative is necessary, and the incentive structure which will enable massive foreign investment in domestic manufacturing infrastructure.

[BwanaNdege]

Innovative idea on how to bypass federal bureaucratic dithering. Hopefully, this Bill will provide "bi-partisan" cover for President Trump issuing an Executive Order to get the ball rolling on US production of Rare Earths.

Next comes getting the Atomic Energy Commission to issue licenses for Molten Salt Reactors before we are all buying them from China.

[Bookshelf]

I have a question for the Senators from Alaska: Why isn’t UURAF producing the rare earths that have been found in abundance in southern Alaska and have known to have been there for a decade?

[RinaseaofDs]

Amen.

Every U235 Reactor is nothing more than a P239 manufacturing plant, not an energy production facility.

Steam turning a wheel is just a byproduct.

[G Larry]

My 1980 Master's thesis was on the progression of nuclear power moving to breeder reactors and then on to fusion power.....by 2005.....

Fusion by laser implosion was my preference over the Tokamak approach.

[5by5]

Interesting to learn that we can supply US demand for rare earths by capturing thorium and by products from US phosphate fertilizer production.

Proposes a thorium bank to sever risk with the eventual goal of powering thorium molten salt reactors.

DOE under Trump is also granting money for research on MSRs and next-gen reactors.

Trump may believe that catastrophic global warming is bs but it’s not stopping him from investing in our energy future.

[nuke_road_warrior]

Thorium is NOT a fuel! Thorium-232 is a fertile material that can be made into Uranium-233, which can be used to fuel a nuclear reactor. The physics and economics means tat the conversion process is neither as efficient nor as cost effective as converting Uranium 238 to Plutonium-239. For the last few years of its operation the Shippingport Nuclear Power Plant was operated as a Thorium-Uranium breeder reactor. It barely achieved a breeding ratio of 1:1 and was determined not to be economically viable.