Thorium has been used for years in high-quality camera lenses and microwave ovens. With many other uses, thorium is now destined to be crowned king as an alternative energy source. Although technically a nuclear power, thorium’s properties lend themselves to many advantages over uranium and coal. Here are the “TOP 10” Reasons Thorium Energy is the world’s largest source of alternative energy. Four of the top ten are for the most important reasons. The safety and possible survival of humanity.
- Safer: Thorium does not produce plutonium, so it greatly reduces, if not eliminates, the risk of nuclear proliferation.
- Safer: Thorium does not need nuclear fuel rods, which eliminates any danger of nuclear meltdown as seen in Japan.
- Safer: Thorium has less than 1% of nuclear waste as uranium, profoundly safer for storage.
- Safer: Thorium is used to eliminate existing nuclear weapon stacks. American and Russian scientists are working together on thorium technology to reduce plutonium in Russia.
- Energy: One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium or up to 3,500,000 tons of coal. This startling proclamation made by Carlo Rubia of the European Organization for Nuclear Research.
- Energy: Thorium can be recycled providing more energy efficiency than any other energy in the world.
- Abundant: There is approximately 3 to 4 times as much thorium in the earth’s crust as there is uranium.
- Cost: Thorium technology will save billions of dollars in security and transportation costs. Security because limited thorium waste means savings in maintenance and nuclear waste plants. Transportation because the fuel, insurance and other costs associated with transporting nuclear waste will be minuscule compared to uranium.
- Desalinated water: Thorium waste can desalinate salt water to provide drinking water. This can be a lifeline on an international scale for countries that have water shortages.
- Rare earth metals: Some thorium deposits contain valuable rare earth metals. Neodymium is one of the most abundant of the seventeen known rare earth metals. The United States has one of the largest thorium veins in the world that is rich in neodymium.
Only one of the seventeen rare earth metals is truly rare. The name to describe these elements “rare earth metals” was given to it more than a century ago. There was not enough technology then to extract the metals, so they were believed to be rare and the name stuck.
Neodymium is arguably the most important of the metals due to its wide use and its implications for national security. Consider the following: Neodymium magnets are the strongest magnets in the world and are used in hybrid cars, aircraft generators, wind turbines, headphones, professional speakers, welder’s goggles, incandescent light bulbs, computer disks, lasers that emit infrared light and more.
Thorium energy in a molten salt reactor
Thorium occurs naturally as thorium-232 or Th-232. When thorium decays, it absorbs neutrons, which in turn causes Th-232 to produce U-233, which is fission. This process of fission or separation of atoms releases large amounts of energy. Not to be confused with uranium-235, which is extremely dangerous, U-233, while producing power, loses its ability to make bombs. Nuclear proliferation is virtually eliminated making the world a safer place. The MSR or Molten Salt Reactor is a combination of two salts in a liquid fluoride thorium reactor.
The acronym for this highly technical reactor is LFTR and is pronounced “Lifter.” Although other thorium reactors exist, the LFTR is touted as the safest and most energy efficient of all, and for good reason. The salt in the LFTR allows the reactor to operate at very high temperatures without causing pressurization. This means that there will be no explosions like at the Fukushima power plant in Japan. Thorium energy is the world’s largest alternative energy source. It reproduces or recycles energy from its original source, rendering uranium and coal almost useless by comparison. With energy efficiency levels of 200 to more than 3 million times greater than uranium and coal respectively, thorium is the wave of our energy future.
Do you think this may be why India has already built a multi-billion dollar thorium power plant?
