Development of Tiny Thorium Reactors Could Wean the World Off Oil In Just Five Years
Posted on 31. Aug, 2010 by admin in Science
Thorium One ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of uranium and 3.5 million tons of coal, according to the former director of CERN.
An abundant metal with vast energy potential could quickly wean the world off oil, if only Western political leaders would muster the will to do it, a UK newspaper says today. The Telegraph makes the case for thorium reactors as the key to a fossil-fuel-free world within five years, and puts the ball firmly in President Barack Obama’s court.
Thorium, named for the Norse god of thunder, is much more abundant than uranium and has 200 times that metal’s energy potential. Thorium is also a more efficient fuel source — unlike natural uranium, which must be highly refined before it can be used in nuclear reactors, all thorium is potentially usable as fuel.
The Telegraph says thorium could be used as an energy amplifier in next-generation nuclear power plants, an idea conceived by Nobel laureate Carlo Rubbia, former director of CERN.
Known as an accelerator-driven system, it would use a particle accelerator to produce a proton beam and aim it at lump of heavy metal, producing excess neutrons. Thorium is a good choice because it has a high neutron yield per neutron absorbed.
Thorium nuclei would absorb the excess neutrons, resulting in uranium-233, a fissile isotope that is not found in nature. Moderated neutrons would produce fissioned U-233, which releases enough energy to power the particle accelerator, plus an excess that can drive a power plant. Rubbia says a fistful of thorium could light up London for a week.
The idea needs refining, but is so promising that at least one private firm is getting involved. The Norwegian firm Aker Solutions bought Rubbia’s patent for this thorium fuel cycle, and is working on his design for a proton accelerator.
The Telegraph says this $1.8 billion (£1.2 billion) project could lead to a network of tiny underground nuclear reactors, producing about 600 MW each. Their wee size would negate the enormous security apparatus required of full-size nuclear power plants.
After a three-decade lull, nuclear power is enjoying a slow renaissance in the U.S. The 2005 energy bill included $2 billion for six new nuclear power plants, and this past February, Obama announced $8.3 billion in loan guarantees for new nuclear plants.
But nuclear plants need fuel, which means building controversial uranium mines. Thorium, on the other hand, is so abundant that it’s almost an annoyance. It’s considered a waste product when mining for rare-earth metals.
Thorium also solves the non-proliferation problem. Nuclear non-proliferation treaties (NPT) prohibit processes that can yield atomic bomb ingredients, making it difficult to refine highly radioactive isotopes. But thorium-based accelerator-driven plants only produce a small amount of plutonium, which could allow the U.S. and other nations to skirt NPT.
The Telegraph says Obama needs a Roosevelt moment, recalling the famous breakfast meeting when Albert Einstein convinced the president to start the Manhattan Project. A thorium stimulus could be just what the lagging economy needs.
Uncle B
Oct 3rd, 2010
Thorium reactors are rumored to have very little and not to offensive waste products that can be neutralized in a century of storage only! Obama will listen the the American money men not to common sense in this! Imagine if he didn’t! He could go the way of JFK!
China’s Nuclear/electric sourced electric bullet train networks and their associated infrastructures are a threat to world economics – they produce goods, oil free, and on veggies and rice diets, at prices that undercut all others on the world markets due to their lower energy/food costs! They present a sustainable manufacturing paradigm to America’s wasteful rubber wheels, and McMansions in the burbs mess!
A revolution is due in America! We no longer are sustainable, practical or realistic in our demands, even our medical care stinks! We don’t live as long as folks in other industrialized nations because of it. Thorium based economies might make part of the changes necessary but will not cover all of the changes needed to make America competitive in a world of Burgeoning Asian successes.
Rodney Compton
Oct 8th, 2010
This is what all the nuclear engineers are talking about – but as one admitted to me, it is still all steam and turbines. France has no qualms about nuclear and will probably lead the way in the technology – if the planet ever gets that far. Personally, I am having lots of wooley sock and mittens knitted. Flamanville is an interesting place on the map!
Cally Worthington
Oct 11th, 2010
Dr. Bussard worked on simple fusion reactors for the rest of his life after he retired from rocketry in the 1960s, his last TED talk is worth looking at, but they were far from a practical prototype when he died a few years ago. To set the stage.
“Aker Solutions” is probably meant to be a subset of the Swedish Åker Corporation, and “if they’re looking into this, it must be atleast theoretically feasible.”
However, the source is Daily Telegraph, notorious for feeding crap to the public. Fission reactions always produce radioactive isotopes, and uranium ore is not as toxic as it’s said to be (it’s so rare that it costs a lot to refine from the ore).
Refined uranium, yes it’s radioactive and dangerous, and handle with care. A radioactive isotope of cobalt is more toxic and more likely to come your way in life than any depleted uranium or plutonium.
The combined fallout from Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents was less than 1% of the US nuclear test explosions in Nevada alone.
Kitty Litter
Nov 6th, 2010
“could wean the world off oil in five years” It will never happen. We are overly dependent on oil.
Wood Gas
Nov 17th, 2010
We are not so much dependent as having collectively sold our souls and governance to the oil companies.
Joe West
Nov 19th, 2010
Thorium as a reactor fuel is nothing new. This was done at the Fort Saint Vrain nuclear power plant in Colorado many years ago. The reactor was eventually mothballed because it was an unreliable money loser.
The real story is what is going on behind this story and others like it. Folks in the nuclear industry are looking for big government subsidies for their projects. In the US we already have a huge government subsidy in the form of blanket liability insurance for the nuclear industry.
Don’t be a sucker for the gasbags at the Telegraph. They’re just parroting what the nuclear industry PR folks are telling them to say.
glorybe2
Nov 25th, 2010
We are unwilling to torture our children the way kids in China, India and Japan are tortured by excessively difficult schooling. To produce the high quality, academic geniuses needed to compete in a global economy our kids would be forced into a severe and austere life. Do we really want that?
dwindle
Dec 14th, 2010
The Liberals are never going to allow this.
Floyd Masciantonio
Mar 25th, 2011
there seems to be some lack of pre planning regarding that nuclear plant,in relation to the terrible situation that they now find themselves in. Why did they erect,such a dangerous commodity in such an an area,profit before people. Naturural catrospheas,in these areas of Japan,are well documented,it is known for earth instabality,and yet they erect a nuclear plant, some Deep investigation is required, nothing should be held back,for what could come out of all this terrible natural disaster is a monumental creation of our doing,and it boils down to profit before people. A lesson has to be learned from all this and that is you cant cut corners,for what lies ahead mostly in those circumstances is a dead end road,so clearly defined in the present situation
Yeti B.
May 24th, 2011
We will never be fully weened from oil no matter what energy sources we may develop. It is staggering the number of products that are derived from oil, like vinyl and plastics for instance