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Gold/Mining/Energy : What is Thorium -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LoneClone who wrote (328)	2/26/2007 9:55:47 PM
From: Webster Groves	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 912

A nice article which I think is right on regarding the current uranium boom - who needs this stuff for the price to shoot up ? I am waiting to short U. But the thorium comments, though generally correct technically, fail to make criticality (a pun). Thorium doesn't release enough neutrons when it fissions and you need to help the reaction along with an external neutron source or add a dash of plutonium to the mix to savor the broth. The latter method, though technically feasible, negates all the advantages of a thorium reactor over a uranium reactor. So a neutron injector is needed - not a show stopper but a complication. There are other enhancements one can add to thorium to enhance neutron capture and reflection and all that, but in the end it's all politics. As with uranium, there is no shortage of thorium in the US. In fact globally, it is 5 times more abundant. Thorium will happen when the DOD wants it - never ? OTOH, giving thorium reactors away, yes giving them away, is probably the most economical solution to nuclear non-proliferation. wg