Source For those who dont know: Liquid fluoride thorium reactor [video=youtube;N2vzotsvvkw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N2vzotsvvkw[/video] Will the US get left behind?
Thanks for the info. I've heard for awhile now that China was planning on having an LFTR program. However, I've heard absolutely no details on it until now. It's good to see someone pursuing research in an energy source that has as much potential as the LFTR does.
Good for them. And no we wont get left behind. Patents only run 20 years and we have way more reserve coal and natural gas than the length of a patent. Buy the time we need thorium reactors to meat out electricity needs we will be all dead and the patents will have run.
Great video, really enjoyed it. India is building some nuclear power plants capable of running on thorium & Russia had converted an old nuclear power plant to take thorium fuel rods with a core of Uranium/plutonium to provide a source or neutrons to keep the reaction going. The need for an external source of neutrons makes it impossible to use thorium to make a nuclear bomb or get an an accidental runaway nuclear reaction (melt down). The Russian nuclear reactor was being used to decommission nuclear war heads (both US & Russian). The reason for thorium is that it leaves the waste material totally useless for making bombs & the thorium also gets rid of all long lived isotopes.
