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Nuclear Fusion is America’s future (and always will be)
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Fission nuclear produces Gigawatts of power and has done so for 50 years and still gets no respect.
Positive Change should include changing America’s nuclear fuel cycle to Thorium – We cannot continue to improve the condition of people throughout the word without use of nuclear power. None of the renewable energy solutions can be scaled quickly enough to meet current and future energy needs. Alternative Energy solutions are energy experiments for the wealthy developed world that are just too expensive for the requirements of the developing world. Safer, proliferation resistant, nuclear power without the long term high level waste storage problems is needed to power a growing world economy and to allow all nations to provide for and feed their growing populations in peace. These goals are available by changing the nuclear fuel cycle to a Uranium-233/Thorium fuel cycle.
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On November 11th, 2010 at 12:05 pm David Raish Said:
I realize nuclear is around today, and is a proven, working alternative to fossil fuels. But, can we scale it at a feasible rate that will meet our rising energy needs? Furthermore, do you think it’d be possible to convince the public and politicians that rapidly expanding nuclear technology is the best solution?
On January 6th, 2011 at 3:01 pm Ira Sorkin Said:
I am concerned about the half-life of the final product. If I read your graph correctly, Thorium 232 has a half-life of 14.1 billion years.
I think that nuclear is indeed something that needs looking at. Nuclear waste is still a big problem. We are having trouble storing the waste we have now…Unless we can deal with that (perhaps with fast breeder reactors) how are we going to deal with future waste?
Although your title deals with fusion your main article mentions fission once but makes no mention of fusion. This confuses me. I have heard of no presently viable source of fusion power (hot or cold).
On January 6th, 2011 at 11:11 pm Robert Steinhaus Said:
IRA – Many materials are mildly radioactive, including common things like bananas (and the human body). You are correct that Thorium-232 has a half life of approximately 14.1 billion years (you might not be aware that this is also scientists best guess for the current age of the universe). While this half life might seem to indicate that this material stays radioactive for a long time (which is true), what is also true is that this material is extremely weakly radioactive and that its direct radiation poses insignificant hazard to life. The type of radiation produced by Thorium-232 is called alpha radiation and this type of radiation when emitted cannot penetrate human skin which means owning and handling small amounts of thorium is relatively a low risk. You can stop and completely shield the type of alpha radiation produced by Thorium with no more than a couple of sheets of paper. I do not want to suggest that there are no health risks to Thorium, just that Thorium has such an enormously long half life and is so weakly radioactive that it is almost not radioactive and much less radioactive that many common things in your life, like bananas that contain radioactive Potassium-40 of significantly greater activity (disintegrations per second) and higher penetrating radiation (beta and positron radiation) than the alpha radiation produced by Thorium-232.
The intended point of my post was supposed to be that improved forms of nuclear fission based on use of Thorium nuclear fuel deliver most, if not all, of the advantages of the benefits touted for nuclear fusion. Thorium fission power produces one hundredth the amount of nuclear waste as current commercial reactor technology [1].
Google Tech Talk – The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor: What Fusion Wanted To Be – http://bit.ly/sTlL
[1] Le Brun, C., “Impact of the MSBR concept technology on long lived radio toxicity and
proliferation resistance” – http://bit.ly/bLqIxB