Happy Thanksgiving everyone,
I was reading reddit.com and recently there was a link to a youtube video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWUeBSoEnRk) on Thorium-Fluoride Nuclear reactor.
Chances are you've already heard of this, but I wanted to bring it to you attention if you haven't. It seems that Thorium has the following advantages and disadvantages over our current Uranium-235 process.
Advantages:
-Thorium is over 50 times more abundant in the soil as compared to Uranium 235 (it's about 2/3s as common as lead.)
-No need to enrich certain isotopes
-Stable equilibrium (the reaction acts like a rock in a valley as compared with a rock on a hill. It's self limiting, no risk of a runaway reaction causing a melt down.)
-Very small amounts of short term nuclear waste (most are good within 10 years, the rest is good in about ~300 years.) Most of the fuel is literally used up.
-Operates at atmospheric pressure.
Disadvantages:
-Cannot use in a bomb (if you consider that a disadvantage.)
-No infrastructure (but the infrastructure is far cheaper for Thorium as compared to Uranium 235.)
-Unknown by general public.
Again the video URL is http://www.youtube.com/... it's a shortened version of three Google Talks which are located here:
Dr. Joe Bonometti: http://www.youtube.com/...
Robert Hargraves: http://www.youtube.com/...
Kirk Sorensen: http://www.youtube.com/...
I am aware that this sounds way too good to be true. But after doing a bit of online research I have been unable to find any massively limiting issues.
I send Pres. Obama a copy of this diary on his whitehouse.gov webpage. If you think that this is a good proposal that isn't getting enough (any) airtime, please spread it, and get some attention on it. This could be the solution that we've been waiting for (that we've already had for 50 years.)