Search Results for: thorium

| | |

Accelerator Driven System promoters are playing to irrational antinuclear fears

ByGuest Author

By Ed Pheil I mentioned at the Thorium Energy Conference 2013 that accelerator driven systems (ADS) were likely to hurt the nuclear industry more than help it with the following discussion. The ADS proponents are justifying their participation, including with thorium, on the basis of two concepts that cater to the anti-nuclear crowd. A) ADS supporters imply that nuclear reactors can blow up like a bomb. They imply this by saying we should not all…

Overcoming Mythology – Real Analysis Regarding Carbon Intensity of Uranium Fuel Cycle

ByRod Adams

…ed by Thorium advocates to permit more efficient operation and closing the Thorium fuel cycle) that Thorium advocates rely on when making their estimates. Until a modern Thorium LFTR prototype is operating there will always be suspicions that someone in the Thorium camp is just a little too aggressive in making their claims (or is perhaps dealing from the bottom of the deck). My thanks to EL, Joffan, and theanphibian for their kind offerings and o…

|

Dr. Helen Caldicott versus emission-free nuclear energy

ByRod Adams

…the relative safety hype. To the public a nuke is a nuke is a nuke, and a Thorium reactor is “just as bad” as the current crop and why shouldn’t we believe it. The public mentality is that if Thorium/Salt/Florine/etc REALLY is so “super safe” then that implies what we already have is not so safe and all ought be scrapped pronto. Believe me, people on the street think this way. Ditto this idea of shipping nuke plants offshore; for all its merits i…

| | |

Recycling used nuclear fuel – Argonne research explained in 4 min video

ByRod Adams

…tage is that it’s about as ready TO go as anything we’ve got; any US-built thorium MSR is going to take quite a bit longer to hit market due to 44 years of wasted time. The problem with Th-U waste is production of Np-237, which is fuel for the fast-spectrum reactors.  Thus, the fast-spectrum reactors still have a job even if thorium becomes free (as uranium from SNF and DU will effectively be). † The high inventory and consequent slow breeding rat…

| |

Nuclear facts and feelings in pink and green by Sunniva Rose

ByRod Adams

…e fair that Norway was endowed with both oil and perhaps the third largest thorium resource in the world. She is also rightfully proud of the fact that thorium was discovered in Norway and is named after the Norse god of thunder, Thor. At the end of her talk – spoiler alert – Ms. Rose channels her inner Stuart Brand by asking a puzzling question that needs to be posed more often — especially at gatherings of liberal, pro-science critical thinkers….

Kirk Sorensen’s Plan to Avert Climate Change – LFTR Presentation at Manchester Report

ByRod Adams

…elp of Charles Barton, Kirk runs the excellent and informative Energy From Thorium blog where he has posted hundreds of research reports on molten salt reactors. He is gainfully employed as a NASA engineer on loan to the US Army, he is finishing his second master’s degree in nuclear engineering, and he has taken the time to teach two of his daughters how to recite the periodic table. In short, he is a busy man with dreams and visions. Recently, Ki…

| | |

The Atomic Show #101 – Small nuclear power plants with Dan Yurman, Charles Barton, Kirk Sorensen

ByRod Adams

…ed with his MS in Nuclear Engineering. Charles Barton blogs at Energy from Thorium and Nuclear Green. Dan Yurman blogs at Idaho Samizdat: Nuke Notes and also writes for Fuel Cycle Week. Our conversation ranged over a number of topics including the NuScale Power 45 MWe reactor, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, licensing issues, waste handling constructs, Dale Klein’s recent speech including his comments on small reactors, and radiation health effe…

|

Lewis Strauss was no fan of useful atomic energy

ByRod Adams

…65) … Building on Eisenhower’s idea, Strauss proposed that all uranium and thorium mines be shut down for ten years. All plutonium production reactors would cease operation except for one facility in each country for producing radioactive isotopes for research. Each nuclear nation would deliver a fixed amount of fissionable material each month to a “World Atomic Power Administration.” To provide maximum protection for the material, Strauss propose…

Trump’s Energy Policy Is Scary To Multinational Petroleum Interests
| | |

Trump’s Energy Policy Is Scary To Multinational Petroleum Interests

ByRod Adams

…ost, easily transported and stockpiled fuels – like uranium, plutonium and thorium. Low prices will increase demand, but that is not a bad thing if the demand is supplied by clean and readily available fuel sources. Another way to look at energy conservation is that it is the avoidance of work that could be accomplished if the energy was used. Conserving energy when we know that E=MC^2 with both M and C as large numbers is about as important as co…

Atomic Show #274 – Thomas Jam Pedersen, Copenhagen Atomics
| |

Atomic Show #274 – Thomas Jam Pedersen, Copenhagen Atomics

ByRod Adams

…heir lifetime energy needs could be met by completely fissioning a ball of thorium that is slightly smaller than a golf ball. They’ve since learned that there is a lot of hard work needed to unlock that amazing potential, but they have also found that it is work that suits their desire to build successful careers while also making the world a better place. After conducting enough initial research to recognize the potential and to discover their ow…

| |

Radiation Superstition

ByGuest Author

…of years ago. Potassium is in our food and our bodies. Rocks contains the thorium and uranium that decays to radon or fuels electric power plants. Reporting about the Fukushima accident created hysteria without basis. A UN scientific committee charged with investigating the accident’s health effects reported in December that no radiation health effects have been observed among public or workers, and it cautioned against extrapolation to predict h…

Another pro-nuclear blogger – Roger Fraley at XDA

ByRod Adams

…great, but it is just another expansion on the theme. The introduction of thorium 232-uranium 233 fuel cycles as part of the mix does not negate the value of uranium as a heat source any more than the introduction of natural gas negated the value of oil. With creative use of heavy metal fission fuels – uranium, thorium and plutonium – we have the opportunity to dramatically increase the world’s overall supplies of useful heat that can be converte…

End of content

End of content