Monday, September 6, 2010

Is this the energy wave of the future?

So let's see... we have a substance which is considered waste in certain mining processes. It produces more energy per ton than uranium, coal and oil. So what's wrong with it?

Well, first off, it requires the use of lead in large quantities to produce a safe reaction. Oops - very toxic. Second people forget or don't know that Uranium can be recycled.

And oh yes - nobody's talking about thorium because Greenpeace won't let you:

But Greenpeace thinks this is a bad idea. The organisation's senior adviser on nuclear energy, Jean McSorley, says: "Operating thorium reactors would mean taking an enormous risk with untried and untested reactors. We shouldn't forget that we need to reduce energy demand, and fully embrace clean, safe and secure alternatives such as renewable energy systems."
Too many people in the world believe that use of energy is bad. Too many people believe that the world's energy resources are scarce (they aren't - oil is current at hundreds of years of supply, coal is at thousands, as is natural gas, and we haven't started talking about all the other fuels out there).

To make a long story short, thorium may be the eventual answer to the world's energy stresses, but people have to come to a new realization before that happens - if you switch to a new energy source, you must also redesign all related appliances - cars, ships, planes, etc, and THAT is the real reason why governments and people are hesitant to convert to a new technology.

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