On 9/20/10 23:30 , bpnjensen wrote:



Luckily, there is Thorium nuclear. A SUPERB alternative to ordinary U
or Pu fission, very plentiful fuel (about 1,000 years' worth), much
shorter-lived waste ( a couple hundred vs a couple hundred thou),
technology already there, India& France among others will have these
online in a couple of years, a great stopgap until we can move onward
to efficient solar and/or Fusion.



After you mentioned this, what, a few months ago, I did some
extensive research into Thorium nuclear power.

What I found was quite illuminating. And could, if implemented,
alter the paradigm for nuclear power generation.

Power plants could be practically and efficiently scalable, to
grow with increasing demand instead of reaching exhaustion and then
being replaced. They could be smaller, less intrusive, to meet with
the aesthetic expectations of a modern environment. And the reaction
is self regulating. The expensive, complex system for monitoring and
throttling the reaction would be less massive, emergency systems
could be less cumbersome, and the containment and environmental
clear areas could be far smaller. With waste recyclable, and much of
it reusable.

Meaning, that every community could, conceivably, have nuclear
power generation, and it could be transparent to the citizens, at
far less cost per kilowatt-hour.

Bridging to a trough system of solar collection, and, as they do
in Israel, storing the heat in molten flouride salts underground for
nighttime production, could put some enormous solar power generation
on stream in only a few years' time. If fusion doesn't reach that
bridge first.

Bridging the gap between coal/gas generation today, with Thorium
nuclear, until there is practical solar or fusion production, could,
conceivably, put an end to rolling brown/blackouts, a sharp
reduction in energy costs at the consumer level, with a transparent,
and naturally evolving grid, and little, if any downside to the
production.

If it weren't for the politics, this could be exciting.