[3] Read below Gerry Calhoun of Nashville energy consultant and petroleum geologist's opinion on Thorium.
In generating electric power, uranium has always held an advantage over fossil fuels because it produces no carbon dioxide emissions. It also surpasses renewable power because wind and solar are so intermittent and unpredictable. Our next step? A fuel that emits no CO2, has minuscule nuclear waste, cannot “melt down,” delivers 200 times more power per pound than uranium and is abundant in the U.S.
I speak, of course, of thorium. Few know that Oak Ridge National Laboratory developed a thorium-fired reactor in the 1970s and ran it for five years, long ago proving the viability of this readily available element. Even more convincing, the Shippingport Atomic Power Station opened in 1957 and produced electricity for the Duquesne Light Co. until 1977, using thorium as its primary source of energy. Edward Teller, the father of the hydrogen bomb, was fascinated by thorium and was studying it at his death.
On closer examination, thorium offers significant advantages. Uranium uses only 3 to 5 percent of its potential energy in the reactor, while the remaining radioactive waste requires storage at great expense. By contrast, thorium extracts 90 percent of its potential energy, and its minuscule waste decays to a safe level in 800 years, as compared with 10,000 years for uranium.
The small modular reactors envisioned by Sen. Lamar Alexander would be perfect for thorium because of its higher efficiency. “Future (thorium-powered) versions could fit in the back of a flatbed truck,” writes Richard Martin in his new book, “Super Fuel.” Eventually, such reactors could generate the least expensive power in the world.
A powder present in most soils, thorium exists in abundant supplies that total an estimated 440 million tons. A thorium reactor will not need refueling for 30 years, while uranium reactors need monthly refueling. Because this element cannot chain-react with a trigger from uranium or be used to make a nuclear weapon, it is the ultimate safe fuel, even if struck by a tsunami or an earthquake or a terrorist attack.
In 2012, China sent 400 experts to Oak Ridge National Lab for extended questioning of the institution’s scientists about thorium. China intends to build two thorium reactors beginning in 2015, basing them on Dr. Alvin Weinburg’s ORNL model that ran for five years. That nation has vast thorium reserves that occur along with its extensive rare earth deposits. Supplies have already been extracted and stockpiled in expectation of loading the reactors upon completion.
India, Japan, South Korea and France also will build prototype thorium reactors in the near future. How ironic that the U.S. conducted all the thorium research but has no plans to exploit that research.
In summary, thorium is 200 times more efficient than uranium in generating power. Plants using this fuel are safer, simpler, smaller, less expensive to build and less expensive to run on a cost-per-kilowatt basis. Yet we remain burdened with over-engineered, inefficient reactors that flood their generating sites with ever-multiplying waste requiring 10,000 years of decay time. We have a far better option: thorium.
Contact Gerry Calhoun at gercalhoun(at)aol.com.