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Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
thundley4:
Wired Magazine
Cheap, safe nuclear fuel with almost none of the drawbacks of conventional nuclear power? What's the catch?
SSG Snuggle Bunny:
--- Quote from: thundley4 on December 31, 2009, 03:23:02 PM --- Wired Magazine
Cheap, safe nuclear fuel with almost none of the drawbacks of conventional nuclear power? What's the catch?
--- End quote ---
It sounds spooky so the greens will never go for it.
Oceander:
--- Quote from: thundley4 on December 31, 2009, 03:23:02 PM --- Wired Magazine
Cheap, safe nuclear fuel with almost none of the drawbacks of conventional nuclear power? What's the catch?
--- End quote ---
I'm asking the same question. Perhaps it's a matter of, shall we say, the energy-density, i.e., perhaps the reactions don't generate useable energy in the same way that, say, burning a gallon of gasoline produces a lot of useable energy.
NHSparky:
Alpha-emitter. Yeah, nasty shit, that Thorium. And really not fissionable per se until you get it to U-233 (aka, a thermal fuel) in a breeder process, has a half-life of about 12 BILLION years, and of course reprocessing hasn't been done in this country since the Carter administration.
--The fuel costs to separate the U-233 from the Th-232 are high.
--Impurities in the U-233 result in very high doses due to short-lived high-energy gamma emitters such as Thallium 208.
--Again, recycling issue with Th-228.
--Uranium is still more easily converted into nuclear fuel and still abundant enough to make Thorium impractical.
Oceander:
--- Quote from: NHSparky on January 02, 2010, 10:15:19 PM ---Alpha-emitter. Yeah, nasty shit, that Thorium. And really not fissionable per se until you get it to U-233 (aka, a thermal fuel) in a breeder process, has a half-life of about 12 BILLION years, and of course reprocessing hasn't been done in this country since the Carter administration.
--The fuel costs to separate the U-233 from the Th-232 are high.
--Impurities in the U-233 result in very high doses due to short-lived high-energy gamma emitters such as Thallium 208.
--Again, recycling issue with Th-228.
--Uranium is still more easily converted into nuclear fuel and still abundant enough to make Thorium impractical.
--- End quote ---
Bingo! I didn't think it was just another perpetual motion machine somebody had overlooked.
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