Thorium - en fremtidig energikilde?

[ebye]

I dagens papirAftenposten (27.11.12) er det et nytt oppslag om thorium

Gigantisk energikilde i Telemark

http://www.aftenposten.no/okonomi/Gigantisk-energikilde-i-Telemark-7055485.html

Det er betydelige mengder thorium på Fensfeltet i Telemark. Hvor drivverdig dette feltet er, vet ikke Thorium Think Tank helt sikkert. Og, den teknologiske løsningen ligger langt frem i tid her i Norge. Men, USA testet dette på 70-tallet, så grunnstoffet kan benyttes til energiproduksjon. Avfallsproblemet må løses, men materialet brytes ned langt raskere enn uran-avfallet.

Dette er det en ekspertgruppe som har laget en rapport om, og de har vært innom CO2-utslippet. Energi fra thorium vil kunne erstatte fossilt brennstoff, idet

.... behovet for energiklder uten CO2-utslipp er stort.

På den annen side, i og med at CO2 er helt naturlig, er det jo slett ikke sikkert at det blir behov for thoriumreaktorer.                

[Spiren]

Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century

There are now over one billion cars traveling roads around the world directly and indirectly costing trillions of dollars in material resources, time and noxious emissions. Imagine all these cars running cleanly for 100 years on just 8 grams of fuel each.

Laser Power Systems (LPS) from Connecticut, USA, is developing a new method of automotive propulsion with one of the most dense materials known in nature: thorium. Because thorium is so dense it has the potential to produce tremendous amounts of heat. The company has been experimenting with small bits of thorium, creating a laser that heats water, produces steam and powers a mini turbine.

Current models of the engine weigh 500 pounds, easily fitting into the engine area of a conventionally-designed vehicle. According to CEO Charles Stevens, just one gram of the substance yields more energy than 7,396 gallons (28,000 L) of gasoline and 8 grams would power the typical car for a century.

The idea of using thorium is not new. In 2009, Loren Kulesus designed the Cadillac World Thorium Fuel Concept Car. LPS is developing the technology so it can be mass-produced.

Wider Implications of Thorium

According to Robert Hargraves, "low or non-CO2 emitting energy sources must be cheaper than coal or will ultimately fail to displace fossil fuels." The United States uses 20% of the world's energy today and, according to Hargraves, if it cut its CO2 emissions to zero, 80% produced by other countries would still be a problem. With CO2 emissions climbing seemingly beyond all bounds, pessimism is rampant and bold ideas are needed.

Thorium may also be the answer to the world's nuclear energy conundrum and Wikipedia provides some of its advantages:

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.

Hargraves sees factories and other industrial concerns using thorium as well. Stay tuned as we track this idea and its development

http://www.industrytap.com/thorium-fueled-automobile-engine-needs-refueling-once-a-century/15649

[Amatør1]

Thorium-Fueled Automobile Engine Needs Refueling Once a Century

Thorium bør definitivt ses på i flere sammenhenger. Det er ikke noe galt med olje og gass, uansett hva fanatikerne sier (CO2 har ingen innvirkning på klimaet), men om drømmen i denne overskriften ble noe nær virkelighet ville det selvsagt være en revolusjon.

De idiotiske batteribilene vi ser på østlandet bør hurtigst mulig skrotes, da de på ingen måte er miljøvennlige og heller ikke energieffektive. Slikt er bare mulig i et land som preges av fanatisk ideologi, og som flommer over av oljepenger.