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Thorium power (Read 83751 times)
Bobby.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #150 - Aug 30th, 2019 at 12:02am
 
The start of the glorious Thorium Age



The fact is that Thorium is all around us -
it's abundant in our soil - it's in bricks.
It's hardly radioactive at all -
even a banana is more radioactive however
Thorium is a fertile element & can be changed by neutrons into Uranium 233
which can undergo fission to produce massive amounts of energy.

Therefore we have all that untapped energy around us all the time but
instead we prefer to burn lumps of stinking coal.
We're primitive at the moment.
Mankind will look back in 1000 years from now at how we almost wrecked the entire planet until
the power of Thorium was discovered & used.

I really believe that we are at the start of a glorious
Thorium age that will produce wonders we can only dream of.
With unlimited power we could do almost anything - even control our climate.
We could make unlimited amounts of fresh drinking water
& water for agriculture.

Cheap & abundant energy is staring us in the face -
hidden in plain sight -
yet most people don't even know about it.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #151 - Aug 30th, 2019 at 9:19am
 
http://www.radioactivity.eu.com/site/pages/Thorium_Fuels.htm

Thorium Fuels


Uranium 233: a fissile nucleus made from thorium

Thorium is more abundant than uranium in the Earth's crust. Therefore, the possibilities of using thorium based fuels in reactors has been considered since the beginning of nuclear power. A major obstacle is that thorium, made of almost 100% thorium-232, is not fissile but only "fertile". The capture of a neutron by a thorium-232 nucleus does not induce fission but transforms later on this thorium-232 into a uranium-233 nucleus. that is fissile. This transformation is similar to that of uranium-238 nuclei into fissile plutonium-239 within the fuels of current reactors.

...


Thorium fuel cycle reactors are one of the options considered for the Generation IV reactors that may replace in a far future today pressurized and boilling water reactors. Thorium is more abundant than uranium. A thorium cycle may ensure in principle the energy future of mankind for thousands of years. Furthermore, the long-term legacy of radioactive waste would be diminished by the absence of plutonium and actinides in thorium-uranium spent fuels. Thorium reactors may even be used to burn a part of the existings stocks of plutonium.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #152 - Nov 26th, 2019 at 8:20pm
 
A future possibility but way off in time:



"If your car was powered by thorium, you would never need to refuel it.

The vehicle would burn out long before the chemical did. The thorium would last so long, in fact, it would probably outlive you. That's why a company called Laser Power Systems has created a concept for a thorium-powered car engine. The element is radioactive, and the team uses bits of it to build a laserbeam that heats water, produces steam, and powers an energy-producing turbine.*" Cenk Uygur and Ana Kasparian of The Young Turks discuss.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #153 - Oct 17th, 2020 at 9:09pm
 
Molten-Salt Reactor Choices - Kirk Sorensen of Flibe Energy @ ORNL MSRW 2020

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Kirk Sorensen of https://flibe-energy.com/ spoke at ORNL's Molten Salt Reactor Workshop https://msrworkshop.ornl.gov/ in 2020.

Kirk argues on behalf of FLiBe salts, graphite moderator and the supercritical CO2 recompression cycle.



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Re: Thorium power
Reply #154 - Feb 3rd, 2021 at 12:36am
 
Dissolving thorium into molten salts allows more efficient conversion into energy than today's uranium oxide fuel rods.

The amount of waste generated, the amount of energy generated, and the expanded versatility of this new "Molten Salt Reactor" call into question our perception of nuclear power.

How safe can a nuclear reactor be, if we free ourselves from the "technological lock-in" of uranium oxide solid fuel?


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Re: Thorium power
Reply #155 - Feb 3rd, 2021 at 4:48pm
 
LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor) Defended by Kirk Sorensen






Useful timecodes:
00:00​ DOE changes regarding Molten Salt Reactors.
01:34​ Multitude of Molten Salt Reactor companies and designs.
03:36​ Kirk analogy between PC revolution and pending MSR revolution.
04:36​ Why do some MSR use Thorium but most do not?
08:35​ How can academia help MSR effort? Research of value to everyone?
09:27​ We need students who have played with salt. Skills for students?
10:17​ Electromotive series. Separate Fission Products.
11:48​ Chloride salts vs Fluoride salts.
12:22​ MSRE experience with Fluoride Salts, Graphite, Hastelloy-N.
12:58​ Acquiring U233 (Uranium-233) to seed LFTR. 2 Inventories.
13:31​ Online chemical reprocessing embraced with LFTR. Proliferation?
16:07​ Multiple revenue streams, not just sale of electricity.
19:38​ Electricity generation seeing lack of innovation. (Time traveler.)
22:39​ Carbon tax challenges. Kirk sees energy remaining inexpensive.
25:20​ Wind and solar using grid as battery, the biggest subsidy.
26:51​ Biggest challenge is not engineering, is communication.
27:40​ Techno-optimism vs dystopia fiction.
30:10​ Positive messages: We live longer lives. Cancer challenge.
31:25​ Messages being heard that Thorium is not just energy.
32:07​ DOE meetings Advanced Energy means Molten Salt Reactors.
33:20​ Funding remains hardest challenge. DOE GAIN $2.6 Million PNNL.
33:56​ Nitrogen Tri-Fluoride. NF3. Extract Uranium from Molten Salt.
34:38​ Student? Exciting developments to work on.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #156 - Feb 15th, 2021 at 8:11am
 




Thorium and the Future of Nuclear Energy

1,333,776 views
•Jul 2, 2019


Energy too cheap to meter - that was the promise of nuclear power in the 1950s, at least according to Lewis Strauss chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission. That promise has not come to pass - but with some incredible new technologies, perhaps it still could. The question is - should it?

Hosted by Matt O'Dowd
Written by Matt O'Dowd
Graphics by Leonardo Scholzer
Directed by Andrew Kornhaber
Produced By: Kornhaber Brown

If we want to convert mass into energy, fission gives the most bang for our buck. Unfortunately that “bang” can be literal. Use of nuclear energy may risk the proliferation of nuclear weaponry, and there’s also the problem of nuclear waste, and the specter of horrible accidents. This last one was painted in terrifying detail in the recent dramatization of the Chernobyl disaster. Nuclear reactors sound scary because the disasters are pretty epic. However the reality is that far, far more people die from straight up air pollution due to coal-fired power plants than ever died in a nuclear reactor accident. In fact the radioactivity around coal-fired plants is also higher due to the trace but completely uncontained radioactive products of coal burning.

But the most compelling attraction is that nuclear power doesn’t directly produce carbon emissions. In fact nuclear power may be our most sure path to reducing carbon emissions and halting climate change. But can we do nuclear power safely enough? There are modern ideas – including the much-hyped thorium reactor – that suggest maybe we can. Before we can understand those we’ll need to review how nuclear reactors work.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #157 - May 23rd, 2021 at 10:50pm
 
These Thorium Reactors Could Power Civilization
for Millions of Years


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•May 21, 2021


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Re: Thorium power
Reply #158 - Feb 18th, 2022 at 6:35am
 
It’s time to rethink Nuclear Power!

Limitless Green Thorium Energy is coming


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Premiered Feb 13, 2022


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Re: Thorium power
Reply #159 - May 5th, 2022 at 9:46pm
 
Thorium Update 2022-04: Uranium-233 Downblending
amid Scramble for Non-Russian HALEU

5,252 views
May 2, 2022





Legislators have begun asking questions as to why U233 (useful for a Thorium-MSR pilot SMR) CONTINUES to be downblended now that EVERY Advanced Reactor supported by DOE funding needs a non-Russian source of HALEU. (High-Assay Low-Enriched Uranium.)

U233 is an alternate fissile. While America's supply of U233 is only 450kg, it can seed a pilot SMR capable of creating more U233... an alternate supply of fissile for Advanced Reactors and Small Modular Reactors.

Appearing in this video (in order of appearance):
REP. JEFF DUNCAN (R-SC)
SENATOR TOMMY TUBERVILLE
WILLIAM WHITE
SENATOR JOE MANCHIN
DR. KATHRYN HUFF
SEC. OF ENERGY GRANHOLM
SENATOR ROBERT MARSHALL
BOB OLSON
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #160 - Jun 1st, 2022 at 2:56pm
 
I've always been in favour of Thorium based nuclear fission, especially since a large percentage of the world's reserves are in Australia.

It's potentially zero carbon footprint. The main problem is the time required to develop the technology.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #161 - Jun 1st, 2022 at 3:18pm
 
John_Taverner wrote on Jun 1st, 2022 at 2:56pm:
I've always been in favour of Thorium based nuclear fission, especially since a large percentage of the world's reserves are in Australia.

It's potentially zero carbon footprint. The main problem is the time required to develop the technology.



There are obviously a lot of technical problems otherwise
we'd have massive Thorium power stations already.
At least India and China are working on it.
I can't wait till they solve all the problems.
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #162 - Feb 13th, 2024 at 11:58am
 

How Molten Salt Reactors Could Revive Nuclear Power



Arvin Ash

939K subscribers

146,950 views  Jan 28, 2024

CHAPTERS
0:00 World energy challenge
2:14 Soylent
3:31 How power plants work
6:43 How Conventional nuclear reactors work
10:23 How Molten Salt nuclear reactors work
15:06 Why are molten salt reactors not commercial
18:11 Bottom line and my opinion





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Re: Thorium power
Reply #163 - Feb 13th, 2024 at 12:21pm
 
I hereby order 6,000 kWh of Bobby's Thorium electrical energy.

Please propose a date for delivery.
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Please don't thank me. Effusive fawning and obeisance of disciples, mendicants, and foot-kissers embarrass me.
 
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Re: Thorium power
Reply #164 - Feb 13th, 2024 at 12:34pm
 
Laugh till you cry wrote on Feb 13th, 2024 at 12:21pm:
I hereby order 6,000 kWh of Bobby's Thorium electrical energy.

Please propose a date for delivery.



see Reply #5  and #6.

It's not so easy.

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