Thê Thíng Âbout Thorium

[Virgil Showlion]

An interesting article from both an academic and investing standpoint.

As most of us are well aware, green energy isn't going to replace fossil fuels in significant quantity anytime soon... or without help.

Enter a nuclear option that looks increasingly attractive post-Fukushima and in an era when "certain nations", rightly or wrongly, aren't permitted to enrich uranium.

India is leading the way, but could this be an investment opportunity for North Americans as well?

Excerpted from the article:

The Fukushima disaster reminded us all of the dangers inherent in uranium-fueled nuclear reactors. Fresh news yesterday about Tepco's continued struggle to contain and cool the fuel rods highlights just how energetic uranium fission reactions are and how challenging to control. Of course, that level of energy is exactly why we use nuclear energy – it is incredibly efficient as a source of power, and it creates very few emissions and carries a laudable safety record to boot.

This conversation – "nuclear good but uranium dangerous" – regularly leads to a very good question: what about thorium? Thorium sits two spots left of uranium on the periodic table, in the same row or series. Elements in the same series share characteristics. With uranium and thorium, the key similarity is that both can absorb neutrons and transmute into fissile elements.

That means thorium could be used to fuel nuclear reactors, just like uranium. And as proponents of the underdog fuel will happily tell you, thorium is more abundant in nature than uranium, is not fissile on its own (which means reactions can be stopped when necessary), produces waste products that are less radioactive, and generates more energy per ton.

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[Deleted]

Solar is the future, baby!

[Virgil Showlion]

Solar is a part of the future, but no way we're replacing our current energy infrastructure alone with solar in the next 30 years.

[Deleted]

Feb 9, 2012 9:27:16 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Solar is a part of the future, but no way we're replacing our current energy infrastructure alone with solar in the next 30 years.

In 30 years we could be well along the way. In 100 years we could be generate the vast majority of our energy needs with solar.

[Virgil Showlion]

Feb 9, 2012 9:42:57 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

Feb 9, 2012 9:27:16 GMT -5 Virgil Showlion said:

Solar is a part of the future, but no way we're replacing our current energy infrastructure alone with solar in the next 30 years.

In 30 years we could be well along the way. In 100 years we could be generate the vast majority of our energy needs with solar.

If only the world didn't need so much energy in the meantime...

to keep the economy humming and rovo's retirement account in the black.

[Virgil Showlion]

I know this is probably stupid, but I believe it will have something to do with crystal.

Crystal as in crystal lattices, crystallized polymers, crystal glass? "Crystal" is an extremely broad term.

The technical definition is mathematical: "A homogeneous solid having a geometrically regular form with symmetrically arranged plane faces."

[rovo]

Photo-voltaic cells are created from crystal silicon.

[dothedd]

Bloom Box Power And Energy The Future of Fuel Cells

[rovo]

Feb 9, 2012 12:44:29 GMT -5 @lonewolf said:

Feb 9, 2012 10:52:35 GMT -5 rovo said:

Photo-voltaic cells are created from crystal silicon.

Like a watch battery?

NO. Like the photo-voltaic solar panels you read about all the time. Some are amorphous silicon but the majority are made from silicon crystals.

[Deleted]

And salt is a crystal. Super heated liquid salt is one of the ways solar energy can be stored to be used when the sun don't shine.

[jarhead1976]

Thorium needs uranium or plutonium as a "driver " to produce the high return of power in the first place. Thorium as it absorbs neutron produces u233 as a by product. This is the "driving" force in thorium as an energy source. It and of itself is Fertile, where it's by product is fissil.
As an investment we were once importing it at h @ 121.00 low @ 66.00
Last time I looked we were now exporting it at 385.00 kilo

It's use as a fuel certainly has promises . They are developing reactors around the world now.
Completion in some country's as soon as 15 years.
Great read Virgil.

[Virgil Showlion]

Yes. Just to clarify for the others, Jarhead, Thorium becomes energetic only when bombarded with neutrons and (ultimately) converted into U233. Natural thorium (Th232) is not fissile in the sense that it cannot supply its own neutrons. Hence if you shut off the neutron source, the reaction dies immediately.

[Deleted]

Is that cold fusion?

[jarhead1976]

No not at all Archie.

Virgil thanks for cleaning that up.
The beauty of it is , if you leave the switch on .
It's been around a while . So we can only hope it can be used because of its half life versus the power players plutonium and uranium isotopes.

[Virgil Showlion]

Is that cold fusion?

Fission is the process by which large atoms are bombarded with neutrons and split into smaller atoms (along with a release of energy).

Fusion is the process by which two hydrogen atoms fuse into a single helium atom, releasing energy in the process. This would be a preferable method of generation, since hydrogen is plentiful, helium is a harmless byproduct, and fusion generates an enormous amount of energy per kilogram of hydrogen fused.

But... the process is only known to occur at absurdly high temperatures (i.e. millions of degrees). Cold fusion is a science fictiony "wouldn't it be awesome if we could figure out how to" technology where fusion occurs at temperatures that can be safely generated/contained. It's a particularly vexing problem because (supposedly) several proposals have come close, but none have ever worked. If ever a proposal did work, human life would be irreversibly changed. We would have enough energy to do virtually anything we wanted: build cities out in space, scrub pollutants from the atmosphere by the ton, send commercial flights to Mars, eliminate all landfills, give every man, woman and child on Earth free energy for life, etc., etc.

[Deleted]

What is the old saying about absolute power?
Any utility that makes all other utilities either obsolete or subordinate and dependent would likely cause a level of political strife equal to or far exceeding the benefit to mankind.
The massive surplus of power would first be weaponized to establish primacy of the organization attempting to control its use and exploit its absolute political power.
The greater good would be cited as justification for all manner of atrocities. Without a perfection of benevolent intention and action, unlimited power would turn our World into a crucible of greed without end.

What I wouldn't do to have a piece of the IPO.


Seriously though... any leads on the key patent holders to date?

[Virgil Showlion]

Seriously though... any leads on the key patent holders to date?

Some labs in Sweden have theoretically been able to generate net-energy-positive fusion, but most physicists believe the experiments are a hoax.

[Deleted]

We are as close to containing net energy positive fusion for the length of time needed to be usable, as we are to developing cold forest fires. The only fusion process we can now use, is located at the center of our solar system, and using the hugely inefficient (economically and otherwise) photo-voltaic panel at our level of technology seems to be a pie in the sky, politicians pipe dream. Excellent article on the Thorium though!