Ambrose Evans-Pritchard (Telegraph): Obama Could Kill Fossil Fuels Overnight with Thorium

[Destino]

Of course if Toyota wanted to help they could sell the Prius for 15k instead of a whopping 40k.

That might encourage conservation also.

economies of scale will solve that if they ever catch on.

[Zguy28]

economies of scale will solve that if they ever catch on.

I actually was looking at buying one when I was at a dealer buying a new Sienna, but the price tag was way too high. Instead I'm now looking at a new $25k FJ Cruiser.

[Ellis]

There was a time when platinum metal was called "fools silver". Today it is one of the most precious metals on earth.

I think of thorium like that. It was somehow portrayed as useless when in fact, it is highly precious to us as a source of energy.

[Peeping Wizard]

Here is the thing... We don't have a shortage of uranium. Uranium fuel isn't overly expensive today. If Uranium fuel is easier to work with who cares if Thorium is cheaper and more plentiful.

The United States easily has the uranium reserves to power the entire country with Nuclear reactors for what thousands of years? France has no uranium reserves and they have brought their entire national energy grid up on Uranium nuclear reactors. We've had that proposition in front of us since at least the early 1970's. The US has chosen not to depend on Nuclear reactors because of other objections about nuclear power. Thorium doesn't do anything but complicate those existing concerns with nuclear reactors.

The entire point of the discussion is rather tangential.

Yes but unfortunately nimrods with misplaced political agendas have worked for years to smear the viability of nuclear power. Never mind that it is extremely clean, cost-effective and safe.

[Peeping Wizard]

Of course if Toyota wanted to help they could sell the Prius for 15k instead of a whopping 40k.

That might encourage conservation also.

It might also help if they made one that didn't look like ****.

[Beans]

:jump:Was not aware of this! Great news. Great news!:jump:

[Beans]

Obama would go from zero to hero real quick in my book if he could pull off such a coup! Fossil fuels can go to hell!

[Beans]

The cynic in me agrees. There's a group of people who would really hate the idea of cheap, affordable, abundant energy... and those people wield a lot of power.

Pun intended.

Reality sets in. The ugly side of the human element.

[The Evil Genius]

What would Alaska do for an economy?

They already, as is, suck at the teat of DC.

[Beans]

What would Alaska do for an economy?

They already, as is, suck at the teat of DC.

Who cares!

[barefoot]

Cheap electricity!

That would be great, the money I save on the light bill will make it less painfull putting gas in my V8. Heck, I might even buy a new truck

[Predicto]

I'm taking this with a huge grain of salt, because Ambrose Evans-Prichard is not a reliable source.

He is the guy who pushed the "Oklahoma City Bombing was really a secret FBI/ATF Sting Gone Bad" nonsense, desbite the mountains of evidence presented at the Timothy McVeigh trial.

Then he was the guy who pushed the "Vince Foster was Murdered by Hillary" nonsense. And that Clinton was a coke addict who used Whitewater money to get drugs into the US. Etc.

He is the king of conspiracy theories. Now he is telling us that Thorium is the easy answer to the world's energy problems, but malevolent forces are denying it to us blah blah blah.

It is possible that this is a real story and the Thorium is the wave of the future, but I need a different source before I buy into it wholehog.

[Wrong Direction]

Yes but unfortunately nimrods with misplaced political agendas have worked for years to smear the viability of nuclear power. Never mind that it is extremely clean, cost-effective and safe.

Nuclear isn't as cost-effective as coal. The safety issues have been largely addressed though.

[Wrong Direction]

It is possible that this is a real story and the Thorium is the wave of the future, but I need a different source before I buy into it wholehog.

W/o a doubt, this is the right stance to take. If it sounds too good to be true...

Still, I'm quite intrigued.

[twa]

W/o a doubt, this is the right stance to take. If it sounds too good to be true...

Still, I'm quite intrigued.

It has great potential,but also technical difficulties to overcome...as usual

http://www.nucleartownhall.com/blog/debate-of-the-week-is-thorium-a-viable-option-for-the-future/

Think you can get the environmental weenies to support it?

[Metalhead]

Thorium sounds exciting yet too good to be true.

At some point this country needs to quit putting off the future and make a move. If it takes 10 or 20+ years for a particular technology or energy to develop, then start now! Invest the necessary time and money. For starters, how about making any and all new nuclear plants designed around thorium.

Personally, I'd like to see this country make a commitment and lead the world into a future of peace, technology and energy, not war, oil and occupation.

[Ax]

I'll go along with Predicto on this.

I would add though, for all of those talking about this "cheap" alternative.

It's cheap, cause right now, it's basically useless. Soon as somebody finds a way to make it work as advertised, the price will increase, substantially.

That you can pretty much guarantee.

[Chicken Fried]

I prefer gasoline. It may not be all too great for the environment, but a truck run on gasoline is good for the soul.

[zCommander]

So the "overnight" thing is, at best, a slight misrepresentation?

Overnight as in tomorrow - which never comes.

As for the rest of the article we will be driving nuclear powered vehicles.

[PokerPacker]

What would Alaska do for an economy?

They already, as is, suck at the teat of DC.

put up a bunch of nuclear plants. problem solved.

[19Skins72]

Sure it is. And as long as you only want to go 100 miles, it's a great idea now.

If Thorium is the key, then we will need to focus on greatly speeding up the charging of current batteries while simultaneously trying to improve battery capacity.

If batteries could be recharged in minutes then gas stations could gradually replace fossil fuel pumps with electric chargers - in my mind, you'd pay for the fast recharging of your cars battery.

That being said, you are correct that even if Thorium got the rubber stamp today I think it would be a long road to getting to "tomorrow"

[Hubbs]

I'll go along with Predicto on this.

I would add though, for all of those talking about this "cheap" alternative.

It's cheap, cause right now, it's basically useless. Soon as somebody finds a way to make it work as advertised, the price will increase, substantially.

That you can pretty much guarantee.

There are limits to that, though. We think of oil as expensive nowadays, but in reality it's ludicrously cheap. We've based an entire global economy on making oil blow up in a controlled manner. Our entire system depends on it. But I can still buy an entire barrel of the stuff for the price of a video game, because there's so damn much of it.

Supposedly, thorium's similar.

[JMS]

This is something that has bothered me for a long time. Nuclear power is a great alternative to burning fossil fuels, and we could dump the radioactive waste in the cliche "mountain in Nevada". France made an amazing choice when they went 100% nuclear. I wish we had done that same.

Yeah it's great until one blows up or leaks radiation all over the heartland.

I agree with you this is a decision which needs to be revisited. Any national energy plan needs to include nuclear power. It's one thing to turn your nose up at 1970's era power generation technology, it's an entirely different thing to turn your nose up at 21st century nuclear technology....

I believe Obama is planning on building some reactors.

[JMS]

i'm pretty sure the difference is that thorium doesn't have radioactive/damaging waste products. while we could do ultra deep burying like france, there is still *some* threat of impact.

sure this will not be literally overnight, especially with cars. but if *just* reactors are converted from uranium/fossil fuel to thorium, you're saving a lot of pollution right there. as the cars that utilize electricity more efficiently come online, you'll see fairly quick conversion.

than again, thorium is cheap now, but when everyone and their brother wants it, will it still be cheap? (honest question)

No I think Thorium is More difficult to work with. The reaction is less stable and harder to control. That's why we have always used uranium and plutonium.

[twa]

So can I blame Obama if we ain't off fossil fuels by November?