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Pastimes : The Case for Nuclear Energy
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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (176)12/23/2009 7:43:37 PM
From: TimF1 Recommendation  Read Replies (2) of 312
 
Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke
wired.com

Perhaps a little too optimistic on how well Thorium would work; and way to optimistic on how it could have worked had we gone that way initially, for example "And 1973 was the year that thorium R&D faded away — and with it the realistic prospect for a golden nuclear age when electricity would be too cheap to meter and clean" ("too cheap to meter was always a very unrealistic dream"); but still provides some interesting information.

I didn't know anything about the history of the decision to use uranium rather than thorium.

Also - "Even better, Weinberg realized that you could use thorium in an entirely new kind of reactor, one that would have zero risk of meltdown. The design is based on the lab’s finding that thorium dissolves in hot liquid fluoride salts. This fission soup is poured into tubes in the core of the reactor, where the nuclear chain reaction — the billiard balls colliding — happens. The system makes the reactor self-regulating: When the soup gets too hot it expands and flows out of the tubes — slowing fission and eliminating the possibility of another Chernobyl. Any actinide can work in this method, but thorium is particularly well suited because it is so efficient at the high temperatures at which fission occurs in the soup."
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