Mistakes: a) Thorium first captures a neutron THEN undergoes a beta-decay chain. b) Weapons grade uranium is *90%* enriched, not 20%... it's NOT easy! c) For a thorium-fuel cycle reactor, the proliferation issues are more similar to how Plutonium is bred, then the enrichment issues of a "simple" U-235 bomb. The high gamma emitter U-232 contamination supposedly protects the pure U-233 bred in such a reactor , but (unfortunately) this is not as clearcut as it's sometimes made out to be.
@Flaser0112 жыл бұрын
I've made these nitpicks to play the devil's advocate and help refine what's otherwise a rather good lecture. Martin makes some really good observations about the policy and state of mind in both government and industry circles. His comparisons to Rome & parallel with the factors that brought about the financial crisis are spot on.
@deanmulholland75048 жыл бұрын
Luv this!!!!!
@ironearth70112 жыл бұрын
If the U 232 is no problem why was it not used in the US WWII bomb program?? Thorium is much much common then U 235??
@andrebalsa2039 жыл бұрын
Even assuming a thorium reactor could be built that is perfectly safe (an assumption that can clearly be disputed), hard math and facts show that a thorium reactor fleet would take centuries to be deployed. The reason is summarized in two words: doubling time (or Td). This is the time it would take for a TMSR to breed enough U-233 to fuel another identical TMSR. And the answer is, in the best of cases, 52 years (in the worst case, 200 years). Remember, first, that U-233 does not exist in nature, it must be created in a breeder reactor in the first place, by breeding thorium, then processing the spent thorium to separate and remove the U-233. Second, because thorium is not fissile although it is fertile, a TMSR requires a certain quantity of U-233 to get a critical reaction started. Check here for the math: indico.cern.ch/event/222140/session/7/contribution/27/attachments/363090/505441/Daniel_Mathers_v2_ThEC13.pdf (that's from CERN so I assume these guys know what they are talking about). Conveniently the guys from the Thorium Alliance always forget to mention the issue of doubling time in ALL their interviews, presentations and videos... The US is the only country in the world that has any significant reserves of U-233 (the result of breeding thorium in traditional uranium-cycle reactors) and even so, these reserves would only be enough to get at most a couple of medium-sized (
@SolarLightCap12 жыл бұрын
It may be a while before we can retreive Throium from the other side of the moon - in the meantime, here is an energy capture device you can wear !: click below
@larryevans438612 жыл бұрын
OMG, was anyone able to sit through this whole video? Someone needs to put a stop to this guy before he destroys the whole thorium movement by boring people to death with his personal thoughts on the history of the civilized world. I wanted info on energy production with thorium. I stopped at 33 min after maybe getting 2 or 3 min of info on what I was looking for. I will have to look elsewhere, and now I know it won't be his book.