Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR): Energy for the Future?

Hank addresses a highly requested topic - liquid fluoride thorium reactors - and tells us how LFTR might be the future of energy in ... China?

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References:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nationa...

http://theweek.com/article/index/2136...

scishow, science, electricity, energy, nuclear power, nuclear reactor, uranium, thorium, element, radioactive, radioactivity, liquid fluoride thorium reactor, lftr, fission, turbine, efficient, efficiency, alpha particle, gamma particle, toxic waste, nuclear waste, weapon, bomb, atomic bomb, expensive, expense, retrofit, retrofitting, china, thor, avengers

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[Carl Franz]

OK. Stupid question of the day. Why the heck do we need to convert anything? Build a brand new LFTR reactor and associated power plant and figure out the the actual economics of the process. It's not like there aren't any places that need more electricity.

[Leifthrasir]

On small scale, fusion takes more power than it produces, however the larger you go the closer you get to where fusion will produce more than it needs. A tokamak fusion reactor is much safer than any kind of fission reactor, because fusion can only occur under certain circumstances and if there was any kind interruption of those circumstances, the fusion would stop instantly. There are several fusion concepts in the making right now, the most promising is ITER. Google it up.

[upisoft2]

Well, that works too. Getting stuff out of context. I said "stop being stupid". meaning I believe you are capable to think intelligently and you are just temporary being stupid for some reason. And all you got was "stupid".

How long will human civilization continue to exist? If you know that then you can share that information with us. If you don't then "no return" is just speculation" made by you.

[quarkleptonsoup]

Oh sorry about the name calling I was following your lead in using the word stupid in the first sentence of your argument.

The timeframe for returning from a high to a low CO2 level in the Jurrasic period was millions of years. In terms of human civilization this timeframe to return equates to the equivalent of "no return".

[quarkleptonsoup]

Using Thorium vs Uranium 235/238 has a very large impact on eliminating the production of long lived transuranic wastes. The Thorium is converted to U233 which needs more neutron captures and thus has more chances to fission before becoming a long lived waste. This means that almost all of the waste from using Thorium is stable in about 300 years.

[Fabian Holmberg]

The facts are that Thorium was ditched in the US/Europe in favour of Uranium reactors, almost certainly because Uranium reactors are good at making by-products for bombs. This is just an unfortunate side effect of the cold war.

It's only in the last 10-15 years that people have had a really serious renewed look at Thorium (India and China for a start); but guess what, building a new type of nuclear reactor is hard. Yes, we have designs for it, but that's a long way off from building one.

[upisoft2]

Yet the state of high CO2 during Jurassic period returned naturally to state of low CO2. And you were saying that there is some "point of no return". You can't deny facts by calling me "stupid" and "idiot". Or by pointing out that a coincidental and short extinction event happened somewhere around that long period during which the life thrived.

You may continue with your ad hominem and other assorted fallacies if you wish. It just shows you are unable to provide meaningful argument.

[sultanofsick]

there's a rather lot of bad or slightly misleading info in this video.

[quarkleptonsoup]

You are exactly the type of stupid I am talking about.

I don't want to live in the Jurrasic period.

You are right that life on earth will survive. It has survived multiple extinction events that saw 90+% of life on earth die off. I happen to like the earth as it is and do not want to see such drastic changes solely because idiots like you would rather just keep burning coal and doing business as usual.

[Youcansuckme69]

Developing and building a commercially viable LFTR would cost an estimated 2 billion dollars.

[upisoft2]

Damn, CO2 was 2000-4000ppm during Jurassic period... way pass the "point of no return"... and it returned.. so stop being stupid and spreading misinformation about some mystic "point of no return".

[Mixter J]

*sees comment adventures* .....Nope