THE Energy Solution - Thorium

Thorium as an energy source seems to be the correct answer to everyone's energy requirements.  It provides clean, abundant energy without any CO2 production.  It is a steady source of power unlike solar and wind.  It is a byproduct of other, desirable activity.  Thorium energy production should appeal to the most ardent environmentalist as well as the staunchest capitalist.  It is a boon for consumers, the poor and the rich alike.  This seems to be a win-win-win-win solution...unless you are invested in other power technologies or the military-industrial complex.

I'm not a physicist, and I don't play one on TV, but I have known about the benefits of Thoruim-based power plants for a few years now through research I've done on-line.  This obviously does not make me an expert, but I have attempted to pull together some resources for your own research.

Here are some highlights of the issues:

Thorium is a chemical element with symbol Th and atomic number 90. A radioactiveactinide metal, thorium is one of only two significantly radioactive elements that still occur naturally in large quantities as a primordial element (the other being uranium).

• Thorium is very abundant, "In every cubic meter of soil, you have one gram of thorium." Salim Zwein.  
• Thorium is four times more abundant than uranium.
• Thorium is hundreds of times more energy dense than uranium.
• Thorium is six million times more energy dense than coal.

Thorium is extremely safe.  "You can walk around with it in your pocket."

"There are so many things in our economy, that we deal with every day, that are measurably a hundred, a thousand, even a million times more dangerous." ~ John Kutch.

Thorium reactors are known as "walk-away" safe.  This means that if, in the event of a failure of the reactor system, a natural disaster such as what happened in Fukushima Japan with the tsunami,or for any other reason, the reactor can just shut down and everyone can walk away safely, without fear of fallout.

"It can't blow up.  It's not under pressure.  It burns 99% of it's fuel.  It can reduce existing nuclear waste. Normal operation range is between seven and eight hundred C.  This is where you can create miracles." ~ Jim Kennedy

"Wait," I can hear you saying,  "This can't be true.  If this thorium thing was this good," you say,  "we would certainly be using it.  Right?"  Well, as with many other potentially good things in this world, our government bureaucrats, crony-capitalists, and ne'er-do-wells of all sorts have, conspired, bungled, and botched their way into setting aside this technology and burying it for fifty years.

Is this science fiction, fantasy, unproven theory?  None of the above.

"We want people to know this is real, and that our government has done this...They ran it for 22,000 hours.  That's five years." ~ Jim Kennedy.

  In fact, a liquid fluoride thorium reactor was built in 1964 and became operational between '65 to '69 at the Oakridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. The director of the laboratory, Alvin Weinberg, was fired for his advocacy of this safer alternative to the type of light-water reactors that he had designed and patented.  Why would they do this?  You see, thorium reactors do not produce plutonium as a byproduct, and as Jim Kennedy explains, "The government wanted reactors that would create both energy and materials for weapon production."  Kennedy further explains that:

"The Department of Energy...60% of their budget is dedicated to creating, maintaining, and doing research on nuclear weapons.  They're not trying to figure out how to get oil from sands.  That's not their primary business."

 So, the Military-Industrial Complex that President Eisenhower warned us about in his 1961 farewell speech, rears it's ugly head once more.  Why would we ever allow these people to be in charge of our domestic energy policies...and in-turn have such a huge influence on our economy?

Another benefit of using thorium would be to reestablish a domestic rare earth mining industry.  In the infinite wisdom of government bureaucracy (oxymoron intended), rare earth production in the United States has been regulated nearly out of existence.  Rare earth materials are a vital ingredients in nearly all high-technology products made today.  But, since thorium is a low-grade radioactive element, and is a byproduct of mining the rare earth deposits, we have allowed China to corner a market that the United States once dominated, and, there by, made ourselves reliant on China for the elements and much of the manufacturing of products like cell phones and other high-tech components.

China has also made the development of thorium power a goal so that they can own the intellectual property (IP) rights  (patents).  This would mean that if we did begin building thorium reactors, we would have to pay licensing fees to China for technology that we developed 50 years ago.

For these reasons, and others, we should demand that our government removes the barriers to the development of this technology.  I have provided links to interesting videos on the subject below.  At least take a look at the first one.  it gives a basic overview.  I have also provided additional links to other resources.









Links:
Thorium Energy Alliance
Energy from Thorium

Thorium fuel cycle — Potential benefits and challenges ( IAEA-TECDOC-1450; pdf)

Gas Prices

$2.03/gallon! That was the average cost of a gallon of regular gasoline in April of 2009...$2.03.  Yesterday, the national average cost was $3.84/gallon...with no end in sight for the cost increases.  Many are talking about $5 or $6 dollars a gallon coming THIS SUMMER!  This will cause an increase in cost of all other goods and services across the economy.

There are, of course, many reasons for these hikes...trouble in the Middle East, OPECs control over world-wide gas prices, and maybe even some small amount of oil company greed.  But, the biggest single cause of this crisis...and it is a crisis...is government!  Under pressure from so-called environmental lobbyists, our federal government has made it nearly impossible to explore or drill for new sources of oil in our own country.  What other country cuts themselves off from their own natural resources?  And abundant natural resources was a major factor in the growth and greatness of our country, since before it's beginning.  Now we cut ourselves off from these vital resources and ransom ourselves to foreign powers who would like to see our destruction...INSANITY!

Chart by GasBuddy.com - 4/25/11

  American Solutions provides the following facts about oil and natural gas reserves within our own borders and territorial waters:

• America has about 86 billion barrels of oil and more than 400 trillion cubic feet of
natural gas located offshore in the Outer Continental Shelf, but the Obama
administration has either banned or delayed drilling for most of these resources.
• In the Green River shale formation in Utah, Wyoming, and Colorado, America has an
estimated 800 billion barrels of oil, which is three times the proven reserves of Saudi
Arabia. Federal law prohibits drilling for most of these resources.
• In the Bakken oil shale formation in the Dakotas, there are an estimated 20 billion
barrels of oil.
• In one small area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), there are an estimated
10 billion barrels of oil. Federal law prohibits drilling in this area.
• In the Marcellus shale formation in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and New York, there
could be as much as 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, the largest natural gas field in
the world.

And, we have a history, when allowed to explore and retrieve these types of reserves, of finding even more than first estimated.  How much better off would we be if we would only loosen ourselves from the shackles of foreign oil?  We could much better ensure our own national security.  Because we would have our own oil, we could stay out of sticky Middle Eastern entanglements.  Lower energy costs could spur growth in industry, and, therefore, jobs.  This would all help in the recovery of the economy.

Sure, in the long-run, we should develop alternate sources of energy, but we cannot stop the wheels of our society today based on the hopes of unproven, inadequate so-called green energy sources of tomorrow.  We must drill safely...we must drill cleanly...but, for our economy, security and our future, DRILL WE MUST!

And, by the way, I don't see anything in the Constitution that gives the Federal government the power to ban States from benefiting from the natural resources within their own borders.  Yet another good case for State nullification of Federal laws.


So, over the next weeks and months...as you pump more and more expensive gasoline into your vehicles...as the cost of food, clothing, services and entertainment go up, up, up...as you begin to curtail your activities due to costs...ask yourself if it wouldn't be nice to have a president who was a little friendlier with the oil companies and had some kind of clue as to what it takes to fuel our economy again.