Refill your car once every 100 years?!?!
Discussion
http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fueled-automobi...
Apparently, there's some people in the USA working a Thorium power derived car.
The general gist of it (that I can understand anyway) is that a Thorium powered laser is used to heat water, creating steam, driving a turbine to presumably supply power to an electric motor to propel the car. Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
Apparently 8g of Thorium would power a regular sized Thorium-derived car for 100 years!
Apparently, there's some people in the USA working a Thorium power derived car.
The general gist of it (that I can understand anyway) is that a Thorium powered laser is used to heat water, creating steam, driving a turbine to presumably supply power to an electric motor to propel the car. Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
Apparently 8g of Thorium would power a regular sized Thorium-derived car for 100 years!
how much thorium is there in the world and how much does it cost
also no mention of 'power' produced from the 500lb, (I wonder if there are any heat issues). I assume the water is in some kind of closed loop otherwise you would be stopping for water fill ups.
also no mention of 'power' produced from the 500lb, (I wonder if there are any heat issues). I assume the water is in some kind of closed loop otherwise you would be stopping for water fill ups.
Edited by sparkyhx on Wednesday 6th November 18:33
sparkyhx said:
how much thorium is there in the world and how much does it cost
USGS reckons there's 12,000,000 tons of it, so if the consumption is anything like as good as the article claims it's plenty until fusion works.That said, if they were so close, why haven't we heard about it before now?
They've made the car outlandish to get the idea some publicity. There is LOADS of thorium out there. We should have had thorium reactors in this country and indeed across the Eurozone already but the beret-wearing politicos across the Channel vetoed it to save face as they had already committed to their own rubbish scheme. India is investing heavily in thorium.
Krikkit said:
sparkyhx said:
how much thorium is there in the world and how much does it cost
USGS reckons there's 12,000,000 tons of it, so if the consumption is anything like as good as the article claims it's plenty until fusion works.That said, if they were so close, why haven't we heard about it before now?
Mr Happy said:
Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
It's not an alternative to nuclear derived energy, it's simply an alternative nuclear fuel.Thorium may be safer than uranium, but it's still pretty nasty stuff and to imply it's used to produce useful amounts of energy without involving radioactivity is just wrong.
Mr2Mike said:
Mr Happy said:
Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
It's not an alternative to nuclear derived energy, it's simply an alternative nuclear fuel.Thorium may be safer than uranium, but it's still pretty nasty stuff and to imply it's used to produce useful amounts of energy without involving radioactivity is just wrong.
The link in the OP but attributed to Wikipedia said:
Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor. This means, for example, Iran could be asked to develop only a thorium based reactor, virtually eliminating the issue of nuclear weapon development.
Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste
Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, whereas the mixture of natural uranium isotopes must be enriched to function in most common reactor designs. The same cycle could also use the fissionable U-238 component of the natural uranium, and also contained in the depleted reactor fuel
Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default in an accelerator driven reactor.
Maybe the glow in the dark comment was a bit flippant, but the point I was trying to make is that the chances of a Chernobyl on Thorium seem greatly reduced. I'd be happy to hear opinions to the contrary though.Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste
Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, whereas the mixture of natural uranium isotopes must be enriched to function in most common reactor designs. The same cycle could also use the fissionable U-238 component of the natural uranium, and also contained in the depleted reactor fuel
Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default in an accelerator driven reactor.
Edited by Mr Happy on Wednesday 6th November 19:28
Toltec said:
As far as I know thorium reactor produce energy by getting hot, so I am not sure why using a reactor to produce electricity to power a laser to heat water makes sense. Why not use the electricity to run an electric motor?
Are you kidding, it has lasers in it, that will do for me.As for filling it every hundred years, that is actually more often than my wife fills hers herself.
Mr Happy said:
http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fueled-automobi...
Apparently, there's some people in the USA working a Thorium power derived car.
The general gist of it (that I can understand anyway) is that a Thorium powered laser is used to heat water, creating steam, driving a turbine to presumably supply power to an electric motor to propel the car. Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
Apparently 8g of Thorium would power a regular sized Thorium-derived car for 100 years!
I asked about this a year or two ago on PH and someone gave a very credible set of reasons as to why it was unlikely to work. I can't remember who or what thread. Apparently, there's some people in the USA working a Thorium power derived car.
The general gist of it (that I can understand anyway) is that a Thorium powered laser is used to heat water, creating steam, driving a turbine to presumably supply power to an electric motor to propel the car. Thorium is one of the densest materials known to man, and could - if harnessed correctly provide a reasonable alternative to nuclear derived energy with none of the glow in the dark downsides of Uranium.
Apparently 8g of Thorium would power a regular sized Thorium-derived car for 100 years!
Someone mentioned atomic batteries the other day and I have been wondering what the core issues are with them, other than being a marketing nightmare.
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