Tag Archives: Nuclear power

Even Though Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor Technology Is Safer And Just As Effective As Pressurized Water Reactor Technology, How Come In The Decades Past Until Now The Society Have Had Preferred Pressurized Water Reactor Technology Over Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor?

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Posted by on in Anything Goes
PWR reactor vessel

PWR reactor vessel (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Nuclear energy is a subject which many people tend to shy away.  I tend to shy away too, because it’s simply a hard topic to learn.  So, it’s no surprise to many of us that not too many people have yet heard of Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor technology.  Still, this is an important topic that people should get to know more of.

Many nuclear energy experts had suggested that LFTR which utilizes Thorium-232 to produce fissile material (probably U-233) can be safe (as not in going to explode).  If I’m not wrong, fissile material or materials are the materials that can be used directly by the nuclear reactors to produce nuclear energy.  So LFTR which utilizes Thorium is safe, what about the energy efficiency that can come out of this nuclear technology?  Imagine only 1kg of Thorium is equating to 13,000 barrels of oil, how is this for energy efficiency?  This is why I think LFTR matters.  A barrel of oil could cost near $100 or more a barrel, but sometimes go as low as $80 per barrel.  Thorium price can fluctuate up and down too, but 1kg of Thorium might just be two times or three times more expensive than a barrel of oil.  Nonetheless, if we think about that 1kg of Thorium equates to 13,000 barrels of oil, we can see that 1kg is thousands of time cheaper than a barrel of oil.  This means LFTR technology can be way cheaper than fossil types of technology.

With all of the advantages of LFTR and Thorium fissionable material, why nobody cared about this technology in the decades past even though the knowledge about this technology was made known in the decades past?  OK, albeit, in the decades past, the preceded technology of LFTR was known as The Thorium-Molten Salt Reactor, but the advantages of utilizing Thorium fissionable material in TMSR are pretty much the same as LFTR.  Nonetheless, in the decades past, the society was gravitated toward the pressurized water reactors, but these types of pressurized water reactors tend to have safety issues (i.e., they can go Kaboom Kaboom).  The video right after the break goes into why in the decades past, society tended to gravitated toward PWR even though TMSR had more advantages (e.g., safer, cleaner, etc…).

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Robert Hargraves – Thorium Energy Cheaper Than Coal

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Robert Hargraves at TEAC3 (Thorium Energy All...

Robert Hargraves at TEAC3 (Thorium Energy Alliance Conference 3) (Photo credit: GordonMcDowell)

Since my previous post was about Thorium, this post is also about Thorium.  Actually, it’s about Robert Hargraves’ suggestion that Thorium energy is going to be cheaper than coal.  In the video right after the break, Robert Hargraves makes a case that Thorium energy is cheaper than coal, therefore it’s a viable energy technology which can steer the world away from dirty energies such as coal.  Furthermore, Thorium energy is going to be cheap enough and plenty enough that the world might not have to go to war over energies.  Of course, in order for Thorium energy to be cheap enough, the production of Thorium nuclear energy must be cheap.  Robert Hargraves thinks this is possible.  Anyhow, you can watch Robert Hargraves on how cheaper Thorium energy might be when comparing against coal in the video right after the break.  Enjoy!!!

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Thorium Is Now Gaining Popularity; China Pushes For Thorium Kind Of Nuclear Energy

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Nuclear power plant symbol

Nuclear power plant symbol (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Back in November 14, 2011, I had written “Can Thorium Be The Only One Element That Energizes The World Of The Future?” article, and this article highlighted what some nuclear energy experts had suggested.  They suggested that the world might be safer and more energy abundant if nuclear energy can be developed with Thorium (90-Th) and not of Uranium (92-U).  At the time of the writing, I was pessimistic about Thorium future.  Just now though, I’d read The Telegraph’s “China blazes trail for ‘clean’ nuclear power from thorium” article, and suddenly Thorium seems to get a lot more attention than usual.  The Telegraph article suggested that not only China, but Norway, Japan, and UK are also looking into ways that they can harness Thorium for nuclear energy.  With all of the commotions for Thorium now, I suppose to be optimistic about a possible future with abundant amount of safe, green energy.  Nonetheless, the future has yet to be written, therefore we cannot be too sure on such a future until we really see it.

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Bill Gates On Safest Nuclear Energy, Requiring Depleted Uranium

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Bill Gates at the World Economic Forum ,2007.

Image via Wikipedia

There are folks who champion Thorium as the safest nuclear energy.  I’ve written about it in the article “Can Thorium Be The Only One Element That Energizes The World Of The Future?” — and now there is Bill Gates who champions depleted uranium to be used in new nuclear technology which he said it would be the safest nuclear energy yet.  He also said this new nuclear technology requires no human intervention and it is still going to be safe.  You can read Huffingtonpost’s article “Bill Gates’ China Nuclear Reactor Project: Microsoft Co-Founder Aims To Develop Safer Version” for more details on Bill Gates’ pushing for new nuclear technology which requires depleted uranium.

Source:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/07/bill-gates-china-nuclear-reactor-project_n_1134359.html

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Can Thorium Be The Only One Element That Energizes The World Of The Future?

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Posted by on in Green
Nuclear power plant in Cattenom, France

Image via Wikipedia

When it comes to the field of energy, I’m clueless and scare.  Just like most people, I know we need various sources of energy to power our economy and retain our ways of life.  Unlike the experts, most people and I do not understand the mechanics of the technologies that harness various sources of energy.  Nonetheless, in this day and age (i.e., the information age), it’s pretty hard to ignore the confusion mass of information which flows endlessly over the world through tubes and wires and the air (i.e., the Internet), and this confusion mass of information has abundant amount of useful information on energy that we can tune into so one day the world might just need to be saved by such information.

The confusion mass of information at now is clearly showing us that using the wrong types/sources of energy too much can lead to global warming.  Whether global warming was started out by humankind or just a natural phenomenon which meant to be repeated over the cycles of the many mega-annum, it really doesn’t matter at this point since scientists are suggesting that we might be ever nearer to so called the tipping point of global warming if we can’t stop releasing more greenhouse gases into the atmospheres.

The idea is to use energy sources that are producing cleaner energy and yet abundant enough so our country and people do not have to depend on someone else.  Depending on someone else for our energy needs can pose great risks to our nation.  Such risks can negatively affect the economy or military or the encompassment of all industries.  This is why promoting clean energy isn’t so simple.  We have to calculate the available means but yet be prudent with such means in ways that we can ensure there won’t be a situation where kamikaze would occur in our future, the future of our nation.

People have been suggesting that clean energy can be in the forms of wind, trapped heat within earth, water, and from the sun.  Totally workable!  Then there are folks who suggest even all of those sources of clean energy to be combined together, the world still won’t have enough of energy to sustain unless nuclear power is included into the list.  Then, then there are folks who say nuclear power is super dangerous and plain unhealthy.  Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster gives the more reasons why people are not so fond of nuclear technology.  Still, we have this one problem, the problem of global warming if we do nothing to improve the way we use our sources of energy.  So what should we do?

Here come a pinch of like minded folks who think nuclear power is the key, but they aren’t talking of nuclear power that relies on Uranium (92-U).  Instead, these folks promote something much safer and much much more abundant.  Have you heard of Thorium (90-Th)?  Scientists suggest that Thorium element is so abundant that we can find it to be in most rocks.  Well, I’m not sure if that is the fact, but if it is then I would be damn.  Well, if it isn’t, then I might have heard it wrong somehow.  But, in any way we look at, Thorium technology is being promoted as safer nuclear technology where it won’t go exploding (i.e., Kaboom Kaboom) if something goes wrong.  Some scientists suggest that instead of exploding when something goes wrong, Thorium nuclear technology might just have the waste to be drained away safely.

Scientists suggest that United States has knew about Thorium for more than thirty years, but the technology was never promoted and developed since the military wants to make bombs.  Well, they say that, and I’m not sure if that is true.  Perhaps, thirty years ago Thorium wasn’t so easy to work with, but now it isn’t the case?  Anyhow, the video right after the break suggests that Thorium is much safer source for nuclear energy, to be energized the world thousands of years to come.

I do have an inkling feeling deep down that as technologies gets so proficient, there will be large group of people who do not want to promote proficient technologies for the fear of being less profitable.  I don’t think it’s the case for all technologies, because some technologies are more profitable when proficiency matters.  In the case of energy though, I fear that proficiency isn’t a welcoming element!  Let just hope there are enough folks who push on to accomplish energy proficiency so there will be a day when global warming won’t even be worthy enough to creep into humankind’s energy conversations.

Source:  http://gizmodo.com/5859214/could-one-element-power-the-entire-planet

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