Thorium Remix 2009 - LFTR in 16 Minutes

http://thoriumremix.com/ Thorium is readily available & can be turned into energy without generating transuranic wastes. Thorium's capacity as nuclear fuel was discovered during WW II, but ignored because it was unsuitable for making bombs. A liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) is the optimal approach for harvesting energy from Thorium, and has the potential to solve today's energy/climate crisis. This 16 minute video summarizes 197 minutes worth of Google Tech Talks on the subject of Thorium & LFTR.

Source material...

The Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor: What Fusion Wanted To Be
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHs2Ug...

Aim High: Using Thorium Energy to Address Environmental Prob
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VgKfS7...

Energy From Thorium: A Nuclear Waste Burning Liquid Salt Thorium Reactor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZR0UK...

This edit was created back in 2009, when the best video resources available on the subject were Google Tech Talks. Since then I've shot numerous lectures on the subject and created a higher quality summary.

Please help propagate the newer version... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P9M__y... ...so that people might find it before this older resource.

• Category

  Science & Technology

[indegruv]

local power generation is the only way forward. Distributed power is for sheep and sheepherders

[gordonmcdowell]

Renewables are unreliable. So you're wanting local power plus either smart grid (to connect remote renewables when local renewables are not providing power) or you are asking for local energy storage (such as lead-acid batteries, flywheel, or pumped water storage). To make it work beyond 20% supply, much more is needed than simply building a local energy farm. Because each additional renewable operates only when the neighbor's rewnewable is also operating, not when the neighbor's is down.

[gordonmcdowell]

In case anyone thinks I created a Matrix29bear account to make people arguing against LFTR look crazy... NOPE! A lot of the arguments against LFTR can be quite interesting, although they're always debatable (the ones I've heard). But for every interesting discussion there's a dozen Matrix29bear.

[ufoengines]

Very cool, I was looking around for Nuke powered Car and came across this. Very Cool!

[gordonmcdowell]

Please see THORIUM REMIX 2011 for fresher video. Most thorium enthusiasts consider power grid reactors charging electric car batteries a far more viable scenario than the "thorium car" stories.

[gordonmcdowell]

Thorium doesn't need to be mined, it is already mined as a by-product of rare earth extraction. Currently in North America it is then (by law) disposed of as radioactive waste. In China it is stored for future use as fuel in LFTR/MSR. U-232 would be created, and consumed in the reactor. STAY OUT OF THE REACTOR, is my advice. If the radiation doesn't get you, the 700'C molten salt will.

[gordonmcdowell]

"Thorium Reactors: radioactive for 14 billion years". You mean like THE ELEMENT thorium? Present in the Earth's crust? The decay heat powering mantle circulation and thus generating the Earth's magnetic field throughout the existence of our planet? That's not very radioactive, and not-at-all created by the reactor. U-233 makes for crappy weapons material due to easy-to-detect gamma ray emissions from U-232 (present with U-233). There's a REASON why U-233 is not used in today's weapons.

[Azivegu]

ow, you forgot to say that technetium is a common product in the medical industry. Has saved thousands of lives world wide!

[Azivegu]

Explosions take place because of pressure. If there is a lack of overpressure (because it simply is not needed) then you wont get an explosion. Fluoride clouds are also out of the option, because we are talking about a molecule that would rather stay combined with its pair. The thorium reaction kills itself immediately because of the U-233. No explosion, no toxic cloud, no radiation, no mass deaths. If it leaks, it cools.

Yes we have to do more studies, but it is still way better then LWR.

[Azivegu]

Once again. the fluoride salt is not in a solution.

And if you are listing the dangers presented by the EPA (a institution I have high regards for) I will have to mention that in their list of hazardous chemicals they also mention silicate. That is pretty much sand.

Now that salt problem... We have a few options to chose from. Li2BeF4, NaF+ZrF4, LiF+NaF+BeF2 or NaF+NaBF4. All relativly harmless if you dont drink gallons of it, it'll dehydrate you. Not more dangerous then toothpaste

[Matrix29bear]

Heck, even with the monumentally poor quality designs that exist for Thorium Nuclear Power at this point you'd be better off running your pebble-beds with a conveyer or even a simple cement-mixer design. Layers of modular moveable containment are necessary.

Remember the rules of OPTICS.

REFLECT, REFRACT, FOCUS, ABSORB, FREQUENCY SHIFT.

All of your answers are there, you merely need to pay attention.

You cannot run a nuclear pile like shaking a box of chocolate-covered raisins.

[Matrix29bear]

Crappy wishful cheap engineering when dealing with nuclear materials is not only lethal to all the humans that have to deal with the byproducts of that incompetence, but unprofitable for the investors as well as causing accelerated destruction of the nuclear power plant.

Liquid Fluoride cooling compounds for nuclear power plants are suicidal, reckless, foolish, bankrupting, toxic, corrosive, and explosive. It maligns all future Thorium Energy Production when the Fluoride cooled plants melt down

[Matrix29bear]

Again, I will clearly state that I have very few problems with a properly designed Thorium reactor (Thorium being an extremely economical source of nuclear power).

Thorium + Liquid Fluoride cooling = Mass-death, explosions, toxic clouds of radioactive dust & fluoride gas.

It is actually fairly dangerous to even use fluoride compounds as containment walls for the reason that a certain temperature ranges & ionizing bombardments that it leeches out.

[Azivegu]

PS: Thanks for the 7 posts that is just shut down with 1

[Azivegu]

Sorry to be harsh, but a basic understandig of chemistry will let you tell the differance between a acid (the hydrogene floride) and a salt (NaF for example).

An acid is mostly the H+ ion. The rest of it is mostly just ignored. So it isn't the floride that is the problem. The acidic part of an acid is actually more closely realted to water. It is H3O+.

Now a salt (as long as it isnt in the aqua form) is mostly chemically inert. So take NaF (which has NO proven toxcity) is a good use.

[Matrix29bear]

Rohypnol, the notorious drug used in date rapes, is fluorinated Valium, making it more than twenty times as potent as normal Valium. Prozac is another fluorinated drug. In all, there are hundreds of fluorinated drugs, and many have profound mental effects, including memory loss. The primary effect of psychoactive drugs is inhibiting enzyme production, which the fluorine ion is well known to do. In light of other facts surrounding fluoridation, this begins treading frightening territory.