Thorium – “Kryptonite” Or The Fuel Of The Future? | Kitco Commentary.
Thorium is superior nuclear fuel”, explained Sorensen. “It is very abundant and would remain very affordable even if it was the world’s only energy source.”
Sorensen began researching the benefits of thorium as part of his work to develop advanced forms of space propulsion for NASA from 2000 – 2010. His starting point was prior research done at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1950s and ‘60s whose knowledge dates back even further to the Manhattan Project during World War II. A large library of documents was procured and made public from these sources.
“Oak Ridge developed what is called a Molten Salt Reactor. It was compatible with using thorium instead of uranium as a power source.” explained Sorensen.
However, by using liquid fuel, a number of issues inherent to the fuel cycle of conventional nuclear reactors are eliminated. Oak Ridge had been focused at finding a compact energy source for submarines and airplanes. In the early days of nuclear energy, uranium was preferred over thorium due to its usability for military purposes.
As part of his research, Sorensen’s company’s goal is to produce a LIFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor), an evolution of the Molten Salt Reactor, making the technology available for general use. “The energy content in the earth’s thorium by far outstrips any other energy resource, including uranium”, Sorensen said. “There is at least three times more thorium , and it is possible to extract a far greater fraction of its energy than you can get from uranium. Thorium can release almost all of its energy in thermal-spectrum reactors compared to about one percent in uranium.”
I’ve read elsewhere that Thorium reactors are “stable by design” so the meltdown issue is no longer a problem.
