What does Sup Forums think of thorium? is it the future or just a hoax

What does Sup Forums think of thorium? is it the future or just a hoax.

Captcha was congress

Other urls found in this thread:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
gen-4.org,
youtube.com/watch?v=vwAodwkCQIo
youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4
blakemasters.com/post/23787022006/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-14-notes
twitter.com/AnonBabble

>What does Sup Forums think of thorium? is it the future or just a hoax.

It's the future.

some of the things that the Thorium society is doing with the liquid reactors is actually quite amazing, super safe (fail safe, even), and the fuel supply is more abundant than Uranium.

IIRC, there is something like 100,000 years worth of thorium fuel on earth (at current energy usage rates)

The only reason that we have Uranium reactors instead of Thorium reactors is because most nuclear power research came from nuclear weapon research.... and you literally CAN'T make a nuclear weapon out of thorium.

It's a maymay, gas will be replaced with nuclear and solar.

???
Thorium is nuclear power.

It is the power of the future. All the "Renewable" energy sources don't give a high enough yield, and Thorium energy burns more cleanly than Uranium. You can even burn the waste, to basically produce no waste nuclear power.

>Thorium is nuclear power
Wrong, Thorium is element 90, and a block of metal isn't going to do much past a molecular level to produce energy.

>american education

Thorium? More like, Borium!

>Thorium is nuclear power
>Wrong, Thorium is element 90

Uranium is a metal, silly.

"Thorium is a chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90. A radioactive actinide metal,"
-en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium

>A radioactive actinide metal

Learn you some science, man.

And this is what more people think about Thorium. Pathetic isnt it.

i think thorium is great and it will surely be the most valuable of resources in the near future when we run out of oil
get ready for israel on steroids everyone

oh you're an especially stupid type of motherfucker aren't you

There was a bunch of hype over thorium like two years ago and then it all just vanished.

I'd like to believe, but I'm not holding my breath.

Thought it was made up when I was a kid and mining thorium in WoW. Still don't know wtf it is, is it a metal or what

Im looking forward to cannibals being made legal across the nation, then they can start making automobile fuel with it.

pretty good for atomic clocks once they get it working

The Thorium fuel cycle has some problems the advocates don't spell out. Namely Li7 enrichment, which uses mercury and the EPA is still butthurt about the mess around oak ridge.

> The only reason that we have Uranium reactors instead of Thorium reactors is because most nuclear power research came from nuclear weapon research....

Not exactly. The light water reactors in service today are derived from the Navy's nuclear sub program lead by based Admiral Rickover. They were made to work for the Navy then scaled up for power production using the same management processes. Rickover even commented it was foolish to let the undisciplined private sector use the design. Further they're notoriously inefficient.

Molten salt reactors favored by the "grassroots" Thorium fuel cycle folks are a possible answer but there are a lot of problems that still need solved. For example, the Li7 problem above, hot vs fast spectrum, cost at scale due to LiF salts requiring expensive, hard to machine materials, separation of intermediates for the fuel cycle to work.

While the different "grassroots" projects have ambition, they have no funding and nothing other than drawings on paper.
I'd keep a closer eye on gen-4.org, many of which are designed to use the Thorium cycle.

What does latest Nate Thorium's poll say about it?

The biggest hurdle nuclear is currently facing is boogyman aspect of the LWRs. There are a number of Gen III (in production) and Gen IV (in research) that can use the hundreds of tons of LWR spent fuel (98%+ fissile material remains) and likely bridge the gap to a working fusion model.

correction, meant hundreds of thousands of tons of spent LWR fuel.

You guys all remember the EM drive right?
It converts electricity into momentum - crazy shit

But for a EM powered space ship you need a fuel source that is extremely stable and energy dense

LIKE MOTHER FUCKING THORIUM

Thorium reactors were designed to run onboard bomber aircraft during the cold war - they're that stable

A ball that can fit into the palm of your hand can meet the energy requirement of a major city FOR A GODDAMN YEAR

mEMe Drive + Thorium Reactors = SPACE SHIPS THAT NEED TO REFUEL ONCE EVERY DECADE

WE GOIN TA MARS NIGGA

FUCKIN IMPERIUM NIGGA
FUCKIN SPACE COWBOY SHIT

In summation, I'm quite fond of Throrium

Get your space-music ready boys
youtube.com/watch?v=vwAodwkCQIo

>Space Folk

I'm so glad that this exists

Reactors don't run on Thorium. Reactors can be lined with Th232 in salt to absorb escaping neutrons, become Th233 and likely undergo two beta decays and become U233, which is fissile and can be used to "run" a reactor.

That's functionally equivalent for the purposes of meming

youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__yYbsZ4

> Thorium Remix

Hopefully Thiel has some ideas in mind to push the idea in the Trump administration.

That's what we're here for

Thorium power and asteroid mining

MEME IT SO NUMBER 1

blakemasters.com/post/23787022006/peter-thiels-cs183-startup-class-14-notes

Just found this. Thiel is generally skeptical of most forms of cleantech - but he seems pretty optimistic about Thorium.

I think he was a bit more skeptical in this context - given all the regulatory problems at the time.

Shit, I seriously think he's gonna make it happen now.

Why leave it to chance?

We can make it happen by spreading support for the idea

Our memes can change culture, let's go to the stars

Fusion is the only way. Save from military and spend it on science.

Agreed.

Maybe we get a platform for Kirk Sorensen to make his case to the Trump administration.

His biggest problem has been funding - from what I gather. Literally just needs several million dollars, and maybe some red tape to negotiate.

false promises. Thorium is an element found as radioactive form in nature, like Uranium. You can use it to break down Thorium into Uranium and other stuff.

All the rest - very clean, very safe, molten salt - these are all things they hope to accomplish some day. These things could also be accomplished without Thorium.

That would be great

I'm trying to recruit /sci/ to restart the space elevator threads here to make people nterested in space politics and policies - if we can make it popular here on the board and the chan, then it will spread across the net

Fusion is a sort of cosmic lottery ticket with decent odds, and we should bet on it until it happens.

But thorium, nuclear and other alternatives are our insurance policy in the mean time.

Politics will stall a project like that. By international law that amount of nuclear material isn't allowed in LEO. Correct me if I'm wrong.

...

Then we change politics by spreading support for the idea - if the idea s popular enough then politicians will fight for votes to be the one to make it happen

Just gotta shift the overton window with your memes