How Thorium Will Solve Our Energy Crisis

There's been a few mentions about Thorium on WSO, and I'm sure some of you are much more knowledgable about this so please excuse my ignorance. If you haven't heard about it, Thorium is a metal that can be used instead of Uranium as a fuel for nuclear power. What makes Thorium different is that it appears to have almost every advantage over conventional resources; it's green, safe, doesn't produce hazardous wastes, and produces enough energy for the world to last hundreds of years!

The first time I had ever heard about Thorium was from a friend who worked at Suncor as an electrical engineer. He proudly spoke about how Thorium's "the next big thing" in revolutionizing our energy industry. I quietly scoffed at his rosy predictions, explained my cynical views, and reminded myself that I was a capitalist, not an idealist. Didn't Wall Street 2 go something like this? Anyways, his demeanor sparked my curiosity and I soon began to delve more into the subject and to my surprise, found little to object:

Advantages include:

  1. Thorium is 4X more abundant than Uranium 2% weight of Thorium produced the same amount of energy as the same weight as Uranium.
  2. Thorium is safer than Uranium because the reactors avoids meltdowns and operates at lower pressure
  3. Nuclear power does not have a carbon footprint
  4. Thorium does not produce byproducts that can be used as weapons
  5. *Sidebit* The moon has plenty of Thorium, which can be used as a fuel source for colonization! Take notes Newt.

So if Thorium is so great, why aren't we using it yet? Some of the challenges include (quoted from whatisnuclear.com):

  1. Less experience with Thorium Technological hurdle
  2. Difficult to prepare Operates at 550 degrees, and also chemically inert
  3. Irradiated Thorium is more dangerously radioactive in the short term.
  4. Thorium doesn’t work as well as U-Pu in a fast reactor. (see link for what this means)
  5. Financial and political hurdles

In the 1960s, Thorium was competing against Uranium, but ultimately lost out because Uranium reactors was more certain, created jobs quicker, and Uranium's byproduct produced Plutonium for the build up of nuclear weapons. India, China and Russia are now currently pushing hard for Thorium, given their growing middle class and abundance of the metal. India expects their first reactors to begin its operations by 2020, and nuclear power to account for 25%, from 3% today, of its energy consumption by 2050. Normally, I'm cynical about most technologies, but I don't know enough about nuclear technology to make a convincing prediction. I'm definitely hopeful though, as Thorium could possibly be the silver bullet in tackling poverty and our economic woes. I'm still learning about this, so if there's something I'm critically misunderstanding about Thorium, please let me know.

What do you think? Do you think Thorium will win out? Why or why not? If it does, how do you think it will affect society and our conventional energy industries ie. petroleum, coal, nat. gas., alt energy, etc.? What would you long or short?

 
bankerella:
holla_back:
I've got at least 80 stacks of thorium left on my warlock. Meet me in Org and I'll sell it to you at 50g a stack.

I've still got 20-30 stacks on Gilneas on the Alliance side. 40g/stack, pst. Or will trade a whole bank full of WoW crafting mats for the same on SWTOR.

Bankerella I think I'm in love with you.
 
bankerella:
I've still got 20-30 stacks on Gilneas on the Alliance side. 40g/stack, pst. Or will trade a whole bank full of WoW crafting mats for the same on SWTOR.

Oh you play World of Warcraft too? That's cool, I didn't think anyone else here did, haha. Do you have a favorite map? Which level are you at?

 
detergent:
bankerella:
I've still got 20-30 stacks on Gilneas on the Alliance side. 40g/stack, pst. Or will trade a whole bank full of WoW crafting mats for the same on SWTOR.

Oh you play World of Warcraft too? That's cool, I didn't think anyone else here did, haha. Do you have a favorite map? Which level are you at?

I don't know how to respond to this. It's clear that you don't play WoW.

@Bankerella -- learning that you played Alliance side just permanently destroyed my hard-on for you. Oh well.

 
holla_back:
detergent:
bankerella:
I've still got 20-30 stacks on Gilneas on the Alliance side. 40g/stack, pst. Or will trade a whole bank full of WoW crafting mats for the same on SWTOR.

Oh you play World of Warcraft too? That's cool, I didn't think anyone else here did, haha. Do you have a favorite map? Which level are you at?

I don't know how to respond to this. It's clear that you don't play WoW.

@Bankerella -- learning that you played Alliance side just permanently destroyed my hard-on for you. Oh well.

I'm new. Don't hate, man. Also, I think a girl that plays World of Warcraft makes her more hard-on worthy, not less hard-on worthy. Just because she's on Alliance side doesn't make her less hot.

 
Best Response
detergent:
I'm new. Don't hate, man. Also, I think a girl that plays World of Warcraft makes her more hard-on worthy, not less hard-on worthy. Just because she's on Alliance side doesn't make her less hot.

Yes, I think it does automatically make anyone less hot. But I don't fucking care.

Back when I first started, I was on a small laptop screen and thus played a little more zoomed-in than many people. Of course I started Horde, but this was back in the vanilla days when all the Horde races were gigantic. Even the troll/undead females were too big and took up too much of the screen. I found I could see the world a lot better playing gnomes, so that's what I switched to while I was learning the game.

By the time blood elves came out (the females of which are small enough for my taste), I was already locked into a big guild and had 20 Alliance characters across two servers. It was too late to make much of a switch. I did go Horde for one expansion (you can probably guess which), but it never really stuck.

Long story short: Blame Blizzard, not me.

 
TNA:
Great post. India is pushing Thorium since they happen to have a large amount of it. So good papers that were done when the atom bomb was being researched and developed on Thorium also.

India uses a Thorium-Uranium cycle to enrich to weapons grade Uranium. But , since India has signed a civilian nuclear deal with the US for reactor-enriched Uranium , and because nuclear warhead production in India is tapering down , demand for Thorium will probably decrease there.

In any case , if you export Thorium , you need to be very careful whom you sell it to - in case you wind up being the cause of something err nasty. And if you've ever lived there you'll notice that it's too disorganized a country to embark on any major centralized projects. Most economic decisions are made at the state level , and not at the central government in Delhi

 

Unless we can somehow use it to fuel tankers and trucks and planes and other vehicles, it doesn't quite solve the crisis. The biggest reason peak oil will cause major problems is because basically all physical commerce requires it.

That said, if we continue to invest in alternative fuel sources for vehicles, it could help.

 

Thorium, helium-3, and hydrogen fuel are the silver bullets, as well as general fusion technology and autonomous vehicles. I can't believe how much money we've wasted and continue to waste on developing wind power, solar power, algae, ethanol, lithium car batteries, etc. It's an embarrassment. It's like spending money on Civil War cannons to put on your spacecraft.

Array
 
Virginia Tech 4ever:
Thorium, helium-3, and hydrogen fuel are the silver bullets, as well as general fusion technology and autonomous vehicles. I can't believe how much money we've wasted and continue to waste on developing wind power, solar power, algae, ethanol, lithium car batteries, etc. It's an embarrassment. It's like spending money on Civil War cannons to put on your spacecraft.

Helium-3 is not a viable path. There is a rapidly accelerating shortage of this stuff as any grad student who works with any cryogenic apparatus can tell you. And autonomous vehicles are a mode of guidance, not power generation. Finally, nothing has been happening in fusion since the 1980s. It is a textbook case of an overhyped boondoggle.

It's a nice thing for people to cheerlead for new energy technologies, but unfortunately enthusiasm itself is not enough to make it happen.

 
SirTradesaLot:
<span class=keyword_link><a href=/company/trilantic-north-america>TNA</a></span>:
Urbanization is the most environmentally destructive policy in our history.
Suburbanization?

Yes, thanks. Apologies.

 

I am as well no expert on this issue, but isn't fuels used to generate electticity and fuels used for commercial transportation different? Uranium is used for producing electricity and oil, natural gas, etc are all sources for cars, cargo ships, buses, airplanes etc.

That said, no matter what material we employ to generate electricity, I think it will not solve the problems associated with upward pressures on personal and commercial transport..

Or, I may be wrong here.

 
sanjose04:
I am as well no expert on this issue, but isn't fuels used to generate electticity and fuels used for commercial transportation different? Uranium is used for producing electricity and oil, natural gas, etc are all sources for cars, cargo ships, buses, airplanes etc.

That said, no matter what material we employ to generate electricity, I think it will not solve the problems associated with upward pressures on personal and commercial transport..

Or, I may be wrong here.

If you can use fusion or fission to create hydrogen, then you've solved your energy problem for transport (and everything else). Fission and/or fusion are the wave of the future.

Array
 
Virginia Tech 4ever:
You world of warcraft losers completely ruined this thread. Thanks.

Seconded

"After you work on Wall Street it’s a choice, would you rather work at McDonalds or on the sell-side? I would choose McDonalds over the sell-side.” - David Tepper
 
bankerella:
Jeez, man. My bad. I didn't know there was anybody left alive who still burst a vein whenever someone is rude on the internet. I lost a few good friends to that medical condition and I hope you accept my sincere apologies. Stay strong, bro! Fight the good fight!

I say this in all honesty and with the utmost respect--I think you're the worst WSO poster I've seen in over 5 years using this forum off and on. I look forward to the time when you go the way of Swagon. I'm not sure you've contributed a single meaningful thought ever...to anything...

At least people like Swagon are funny as hell and when they hijack threads I can at least chuckle at the hilariousness of their posts. You, ma'am, are just, I don't know, a waste.

Array
 
Virginia Tech 4ever:

I say this in all honesty and with the utmost respect--I think you're the worst WSO poster I've seen in over 5 years using this forum off and on.

Thanks, dude, I like your shit too. Although I can't say I remember any of it or, come to think of it, even know who you are. Nonetheless, total respect!

 
Virginia Tech 4ever:
I say this in all honesty and with the utmost respect--I think you're the worst WSO poster I've seen in over 5 years using this forum off and on. I look forward to the time when you go the way of Swagon. I'm not sure you've contributed a single meaningful thought ever...to anything...

I'm not saying I necessarily agree or disagree, but just curious, what meaningful thought have you contributed?

 
detergent:
SirTradesaLot:
I just googled world of Warcraft. The only thing that came up was a video game. Is that what you guys are talking about or is it something I couldn't find on google?

That is what we are talking about.

Example (which is certainly impressive):

http://us.battle.net/wow/en/character/dragonblight/Bankerella/simple

Have you really never heard of it?

Haha...too old, i guess. They don't advertise it on The Disney Channel, ESPN, or CNBC.
 

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