Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.

[boom_box]

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Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.

So what is the big deal about thorium? In 2006, writing in the magazine Cosmos, Tim Dean summarized perhaps the most optimistic scenario for what a Thorium-powered nuclear world would be like:

What if we could build a nuclear reactor that offered no possibility of a meltdown, generated its power inexpensively, created no weapons-grade by-products, and burnt up existing high-level waste as well as old nuclear weapon stockpiles? And what if the waste produced by such a reactor was radioactive for a mere few hundred years rather than tens of thousands? It may sound too good to be true, but such a reactor is indeed possible, and a number of teams around the world are now working to make it a reality. What makes this incredible reactor so different is its fuel source: thorium.

Wikipedia - Thorium

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I hope this would actually replace uranium process.

[moy1moy1]

Basi sa akung pag basa..


Thorium = Unification of the world, downfall of the fossil fuel energy industry = Better living, new inventions = Unlimited energy for the planet = SPACE TRAVEL

..when?

[kabirhirayu]

hopefully soon enough, like in the next 10-20 years. para nako, lisod istop ang fuel industry karon kai sa tanaw nako grabe ila gi invest ani mao d nila ma give up daun2x.. like daghan kaau ng depend ug fossil fuel for consumption ug for getting rich mao mag lisod silag pull out ani nga technology.. just my dos centimos

[EarlZ]

I hope I can see this technology in my life time.

[stealthghost]

Powdered thorium metal is pyrophoric and will often ignite spontaneously in air. Natural thorium decays very slowly compared to many other radioactive materials, and the alpha radiation emitted cannot penetrate human skin meaning owning and handling small amounts of thorium, such as a gas mantle, is considered safe. The decay of thorium does, however, create radon gas so caution should be exercised when thorium decays in closed spaces. Exposure to an aerosol of thorium can lead to increased risk of cancers of the lung, pancreas, and blood, as lungs and other internal organs can be penetrated by alpha radiation. Exposure to thorium internally leads to increased risk of liver diseases.
The element has no known biological role.

From Wikipedia..

I hope we could see more of this in action... ^_^

[boom_box]

India has already started its experimental Thorium based reactor.

[Ice Knight 7]

Oh cool! Now we just need this for a lot of scientific breakthrough!

[kidynamite]

goodbye arab countries....

[fritzd]

I don't know much about nuclear physics but I know something special about Thorium. It has one of the lowest energy level of its first excited state of its nucleus. So low that you can access it with Ultraviolet radiation. This means that it is possible to excite its nucleus with a high power ultralow low bandwidth UV laser!

Some of my neighboring colleagues are trying to do this. They are the one of the first Thorium spectroscopy group in the world aiming to do the first ever Nuclear spectroscopy with Thorium. If they succeed, it will be a great achievement possibly a future Nobel candidate. Applications will include ultrahigh precision NUCLEAR CLOCKS and maybe studies of the possible drift of fundamental constants.

More on their group here.
Research « Thorium
Their group leader is Prof. Thorsten Schumm. He is an incredibly nice and humble guy and as well as very intelligent (became prof at a young age!). Anyway, as far as I remember, it took them quite some time to acquire Thorium. It's abundant but not easy to extract making it quite expensive.

[moy1moy1]

India has already started its experimental Thorium based reactor.

If it ever succeeds, that would be the end of fossil fuels~

India will become the next biggest threat to USA and China.