Thorium & Clean Energy: Can It Provide Sustainable Clean Energy?

I guess this article can aid here 😀 . #-Link-Snipped-#
Government is talking about thorium since long however, I guess we have huge amount of Thorium present in our mines, but policy to recover it is being planned since last 20 years.

Anyways, yes, I do believe that it can be a sustainable source with some drawbacks.

Back when I was in US Navy Nuclear Power School, I noticed that thorium had characteristics that could allow it to be used as a fuel for a fission reactor. But not a word was ever mentioned in that school about thorium. I thought it odd. I searched a little and found that it was reasonably plentiful on earth. So why no interest in thorium?

That puzzled me for decades until recently I read (it seems obvious now) that the nuclear power industry was based on research conducted for the nuclear weapons industry. And (I didn't know but could guess) thorium doesn't make a good bomb. That's why there's historically been no interest in thorium reactors.

But one of the chief objections to uranium and plutonium is that they can be made into bombs. So an industry that makes nuclear power reactors out of them would have to be super secure to make darn sure no hate-filled evil doers got hold of the fuel. You can hide a bomb's worth of plutonium in a lunch pail or briefcase, so security would be difficult.

But hey! If thorium doesn't work for a bomb, but does work for a reactor, then it's a perfect fuel to take away a major objection to nuclear power.

Now if we could ever convince the media to say the word <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderator_%28Nuclear_Reactor%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Moderator %28Nuclear Reactor%29</a>, we could start convincing the world that we need not fear Chernobyl-type nuclear accidents.

KenJacksonNow if we could ever convince the media to say the word <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderator_%28Nuclear_Reactor%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Moderator %28Nuclear Reactor%29</a>, we could start convincing the world that we need not fear Chernobyl-type nuclear accidents.

I came across this extremely exciting concept: Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR).
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If all that is claimed is true, then cold fusion (or its close cousin) has been proved on a commercial scale.
Good old Hydrogen is fused with Nickel to produce Copper and nearly 7 Million times the energy of Hydrogen burning in Oxygen.

Weight for weight it produces 200,000 times more energy than oil.
As if that is not enough, there is no residual radio activity. There is a small Gamma ray emission easily stopped by a small lead shield. No carbon foot print. No Chernobyl.
Seems too good to be true. Yet, commercial exploitation is apparently round the corner at USD 800!

KenJacksonNow if we could ever convince the media to say the word <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moderator_%28Nuclear_Reactor%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Moderator %28Nuclear Reactor%29</a>, we could start convincing the world that we need not fear Chernobyl-type nuclear accidents.

Germany is infact thinking of giving up Nuclear energy. It was in news sometime back.

bioramaniSeems too good to be true. Yet, commercial exploitation is apparently round the corner at USD 800!

#-Link-Snipped-# Really, it requires a thought.

Excellent! But they really ought to ditch the phrase "cold fusion". It will be forever tied to the scam that made it famous. But Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) sounds like a cool term that could be acceptable.

I was concerned about the number of neutrons, but I see that isotope 64 of both Ni and Cu is stable. I wonder if that's the one they use.

KenJacksonExcellent! But they really ought to ditch the phrase "cold fusion". It will be forever tied to the scam that made it famous. But Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR) sounds like a cool term that could be acceptable.

I was concerned about the number of neutrons, but I see that isotope 64 of both Ni and Cu is stable. I wonder if that's the one they use.

That is what is claimed. The economic implications are enormous if the smallest version is going to be sold at US$ 800.
I agree re:Cold Fusion. Virtually became a dirty word in physics. I am continuing my checks with my fellow scientists in the nuclear speciality to see if there are any faults in the theory. There appears to be a prima facie case for the ECAT technology.

Apparently India has world's 25% of Thorium Reserves and is considered a global leader in thorium based fuel. Thorium would meet projected global power generation needs for well over 1000 years. Although we do require more efficient ways to mine it.

Thorium still in the ring:
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I'm glad I kept reading. At first I thought that article was just a silly comic thing. But it has some meat.

This subject isn't at the top of my list, but it is interesting. So I hope I get a chance to read #-Link-Snipped-# by Richard Martin.

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I just signed an #-Link-Snipped-# at whitehouse.gov titled "Allow a Federally Chartered Corporation to accept THORIUM and to develop uses and markets for THORIUM including ENERGY."

I can't imagine it will amount to anything, but it's something.

An update.
Unlimited fusion power may be round the corner. Keep fingers crossed.
<a href="https://www.extremetech.com/extreme/137520-clean-limitless-fusion-power-could-arrive-sooner-than-expected?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ziffdavis%2Fextremetech+%28Extremetech%29" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Clean, limitless fusion power could arrive sooner than expected | ExtremeTech</a>

China is forging ahead on Thorium energy. Many others are in the race.
An update: <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/safe-nuclear-power-not-a-pipedream-20130107-2ccqh.html" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer">Safe nuclear power not a pipedream</a>

But where is India in this race The world's leading producer of thorium is still lagging in this race will Indians realize this at least after 10 years

ConquerorBut where is India in this race The world's leading producer of thorium is still lagging in this race will Indians realize this at least after 10 years

You are right. Where in the name of heaven are we?
Covering up for rape cases, giving free smart phones to BPL people and bashing each other on the poll arena. That is what we are busy with in India.

Probably the Indian authorities are waiting for an opportunity to auction licenses for private companies to generate and sell nuclear power 😁

so thorium is a is able to give clean energy the scientists are conducting experiments to use thorium as a fuel in india thorium reserves are more but some changes are to be made to use thorium as a fuel

Though the changes are required the cost of making this change is well below the cost of procuring Thorium reserves from other countries

There seems to be some interesting developments in cleaning up the dirty coal technology capturing almost all of the carbon dioxide.

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