Search Results for: thorium

Civilization and the Significance of Nuclear Development

ByRod Adams

…e extracted from the resulting coal ash. Worldwide releases of uranium and thorium from coal burning total about 37,000 tonnes annually. More radioactive heavy metal is released into the environment every two years by coal burning than the total spent fuel waiting to be buried from all U.S. nuclear power production and most U.S. nuclear weapons production. Since uranium and thorium are potent nuclear fuels, burning coal also wastes more potential…

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Uranium Catalysts for the Reduction and/or Chemical Coupling of Carbon Dioxide, Carbon Monoxide, and Nitrogen

ByGuest Author

…tant differences, most notably among the lightest actinides, in particular thorium, protactinium, uranium, neptunium, plutonium, and, to a lesser extent, americium all of which are atypical, more or less, as f element chemistry goes. The first three of the listed lighter actinides occur naturally and can be isolated from ores, two of them in vast amounts. Because their chemistry is so different from that of say lanthanum, praseodymium, and neodymi…

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Opportunity to use science to establish radiation standards

ByRod Adams

…e are actually valuable ores. We should be able to get ALL THE URANIUM AND THORIUM WE NEED TO FUEL NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS FOR CENTURIES BY USING COAL CINDERS AND SMOKE AS ORE. Unburned Coal and crude oil also contain BENZENE, THE CANCER CAUSER. We could get all of our uranium and thorium from coal ashes and cinders. The carbon content of coal ranges from 96% down to 25%, the remainder being rock of various kinds. If you are an underground coal miner…

Is Natural Gas The Answer? Chinese Scientists Have Announced That They Have a Better One.

ByRod Adams

…question that the National Journal asked. If the answer to the National Journal’s question “Is natural gas the answer?” is a resounding No – as it is for me – then the next question that should follow is “Then what is?” My response is that the answer is uranium and thorium, which produce massive quantities of controllable heat that can be used for human needs and wants. The already discovered resource will last for thousands of years (not barely…

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Chevron’s John Watson should follow pronuclear words with nuclear energy investments

ByRod Adams

…any, investment in expanding commercial energy production from uranium and thorium. They call themselves “energy companies” and frequently talk about their interest in wind, solar, biofuel, and geothermal production. Here is how Chevron describes itself in a recent press release. Chevron is one of the world’s leading integrated energy companies, with subsidiaries that conduct business worldwide. The company is involved in virtually every facet of…

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Nuclear Power after Fukushima: It is, still, the energy of the future

ByRod Adams

…sics here, but as a pro-nuke person and a supporter of the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) development by Kirk Sorenson and Flibe-Energy, I can’t help but think about how tragic it was for the U.S. to abandon thorium-fuelled molten salt reactor technology back in the the 1970s when Alvin Weinberg was promoting it (and got fired for it). If we had not done so, then perhaps the nuclear safety issue would not exist today — at least not to the…

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Terrestrial Energy – Molten Salt Reactor Designed to Be Commercial Success

ByRod Adams

…eactor on low enriched uranium — which it describes as a dry tinder — vice thorium, which is the frequently targeted molten salt reactor fuel. According to TEI’s web page explaining that choice, thorium is analogous to “wet wood” and needs a “torch” like plutonium-239 or highly enriched uranium (either 235 or 233) in order to be lit and sustained. TEI knows there is plenty of available natural uranium at an affordable cost, and that there is plent…

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Macfarlane is not qualified to be Chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission

ByRod Adams

…a and recently the Crystal Mine in Victoria is changing the way it handles Thorium. The export of Thorium to China seems more attractive than the coal they now export. After all, the Aussies are “Greenies” and Base Load power needs to change to LFTR with a little help from people like you. Rod Adams @MikeP I strongly disagree with your implication that we need to do something with the used material in order to prevent something bad from happening….

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Richard Muller is marketing natural gas in a “converted skeptic” costume

ByRod Adams

…be terrible for the natural gas industry if the word got out that uranium, thorium and plutonium are not just a temporary bridge fuel, but that the trio of heavy metals is capable of supplying abundant, reliable, clean, and safe energy use for several millennia into the future. The persistent effort to damn nuclear energy by completely ignoring its well known capabilities in a discussion about solutions to CO2 emissions is blindingly obvious to me…

Should Americans Be Rooting For Increased Dependence on Coal Consumption?

ByRod Adams

…ll become increasingly more expensive since the rate of production from unconventional resources like these will be lower. The prices of hydrocarbons will get to the point that people will mainly use them for chemical production. Even if uranium and thorium prices shoot up to over $500/pound equivalent oxides you will only see further exploration. There is already talk among many geochemists that the true crustal abundance of thorium is somewhere…

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60 Years Ago, Ike, the Most Visionary President of the 20th Century, Gave Atoms for Peace Speech

ByRod Adams

…mal long term waste, and with high efficiencies. I do, however, think that Thorium may still become “a thing,” as price parity (including fab costs and SWUs) may come well before the EOL of newer units. I also think the public acceptance of Thorium will be beneficial. If fusion shows us the end of the spent fuel problem, I think building well-vetted LWRs cheaply, en masse (South Korea style), may be possible while fusion matures. 3) On a company-l…

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The Atomic Show #184 – Kirk Sorensen, Co-Founder Flibe Energy

ByRod Adams

…world’s formost proponent of molten salt reactors fueled with uranium and thorium. Our initial plan for this episode of The Atomic Show was to have a three way conversation with Richard Martin, the author of Superfuel, but that did not quite work as planned. Perhaps anticipation will build even more due to the delay. I hope you enjoy the conversation; Kirk and I do not really need anyone else to enable a spirited discussion about various forms of…

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