An alternative nuclear fuel

[AlanM]

Hi, found this link and thought it may be of interest. Not a fan of nuclear by any means, but this seems less nasty than the conventional type

http://pubs.acs.org/cen/email/html/8746sci2.html

Alan

[guydewdney]

ooooooh - watch martin explode!

[Stuart]

really good, far to sensible for the politicans to use! 

[AlanM]

Does the presumption that reactors are still built to use uranium which can produce plutonium rather than use thorium, suggest that plutonium is still a desirable byproduct or have they just forgotten about the thorium option?

BTW, its not meant to provoke martin,  , just thought it interesting as I hadn't been aware of this type of "fuel"

Alan

[Ancient Brewer]

The problem is that the whole nuclear infrastructure is geared towards uranium use from mining to mill, to reprocessing and disposal. A legacy of the fact the industry has been primarily geared towards the production of weapons grade PU.

At present Uranium prices are quite low so there is little commercial pressure to develop alternative fuels.

Once Thorium based fuelling systems are commerically developed there is no practical shortage of nuclear fuels this side of 10,000 AD

[martin]

Sometimes it pays to "start at the other end", or "turn a problem upside down", and have a good squint at it to make sense of it.
We have a world which is rapidly hurtling towards hell in a handcart, due in no small part to it's addiction to power consumption - like alcoholics reaching blearily for their morning glass of "heart starter" they fear having to cut down, fear having to use less in a ludicrously illogical manner, cannot contemplate life without poisoning themselves...
  To suddenly announce that a largely unproven technology is "the solution" is somewhat akin to saying "whoopee", "he's still an alky, but he's learnt how to brew bathtub gin".......
As I've said innumerable times, there are several horsemen of our collective apocalypse hurtling towards us, led by the spectre of overpopulation, most of the rest being the fact that we are "using up reserves" like no tomorrow, and not cleaning up behind us, and we are heading for a completely toxic, poisoned planet......
So, far from filling me with hope, the sudden (utterly naive) claim of "power for 10,000 years" makes me fear that the thickerati will take it is an excuse to continue with our selfish and profligate headlong consumption of the earth's riches...........

[Ancient Brewer]

Unproven technology

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor

[Ivan]

I think Plutonium is now assigned a negative value in government cashflow, as there's rather too much of it about. The only people who really want it are terrorists, and it's not easy to dispose of, so politically, it's now recognised as a liability more than an asset.

[Outtasight]

As Martin points out, there are a multitude of grave issues facing the World and one is the proliferation of nuclear weapons. 

As the Thorium process allows you to make electricity without making weapons grade material, I'd be happier if we developed the technology and then had a lever on the Iranians & North Koreans to say "ok, you can have a civil nuclear programme to provide power for your people but it must be a Thorium reactor".  In fact, as they are starting from scratch, it makes perfect sense for them to start a Thorium programme, become World leaders in the technology and sell it to the "evil West" to attain their world domination by buying the poor Western economies in the future  .  We'll fight to the death if invaded by an army but will quite happily sell out to anyone with the cash 

If they really are interested in just producing electricity then there's no sane person who would start a nuclear programme based on the old process that produces Plutonium as a hazardous and expensive waste product (to store and keep safe from "undesirables").  If Thorium is so much more abundant, easy to get at and process into useful fuel than ²³⁸U then it also makes perfect economic sense NOT to base your next 30 years infrastructure on the resource that is scarce, difficult to mine and refine...  Unless the real reason you want to do so is to build weapons.

In the grand scheme of things that are likely to destroy life as we know it,  No.1 still has to be loonies with big guns rather than melting (or not) Himalayan ice fields.  If we could all just stop killing each other for long enough to draw breath, maybe we'd be able to focus our brains and cash on sorting out all this "other stuff"....

[Ancient Brewer]

I think Plutonium is now assigned a negative value in government cashflow, as there's rather too much of it about. The only people who really want it are terrorists, and it's not easy to dispose of, so politically, it's now recognised as a liability more than an asset.

Such a shame. 1kg of PU238 knocks out about 600w continously. It is a strong alpha emitter so a sheet of paper is sufficient for shielding. Now if I could get 3 - 4 kg that would provide all my heating. In summer I could stick in a swimming pool to keep the temperature up

Everyone a winner