...how to save the world, and advance civilization at the same time.
What a wonderful idea...to make this come true all our world needs
is an unlimited supply of clean, pollution free (non radioactive) energy.Aha....I hear you say. Yes I can hear you thinking ........
Wind Power?, Hydrogen Power?, Wave power?,Solar Furnace?, Solar Voltaic? Chemical Energy?, Fusion? etc. etc........no matter what type of energy you are thinking of, none of the above are able to produce energy in quantities dense enough to enable everyone on our Earth to progress forwards onwards and upwards.
A progressive civilization requires a large constant energy source that can heat and lightup every city, dwelling, and factory of mankind on Earth, even if the worlds population was likely to double over the next hundred years.
I am thinking of an unlimited non polluting energy source that is so far untapped right here on Earth. A mineral that is actually lying around here on Earth.!
An abundant mineral thats just waiting to be mined to produce Energy for mankind.
A mineral that is dozens of times more abundant within the earth, than Uranium, (Uranium is actually becoming more scarce).
Plus Uranium is only found in limited quantitys in 4 or 5 places of the world. It will run out within 50 years at the rate the world intends to build Nuclear Power Stations.
Nuclear Power Waste needs to be buried in metal or concrete tubes, placed deep within the Earth in stable water free zones for thousands of years, until its residual radio-activity has decayed.
So lets forget about Uranium.
So what am I thinking about? I'm thinking about the abundant mineral Thorium
Well yes Thorium is very slightly radioactive, but just one hundred years ago,every one
read by the light of a 'Tilley Lamp', its gas mantle was soaked in a cesium and thorium mixture,
it gave off a brilliant white light when heated by a gas jet.
Now if what I am reading is correct...it seems that if you bombard Thorium with Protons,
that are produced from a minature CERN (just a few feet in diameter) You get 250 more times
power from the Thorium, than its equivalent amount of Uranium weight for weight.
Plus the molten Lead metal, or Silver metal, that the Thorium heats up to produce this power,
is only produced while the Thorium is being bombarded with Neutrons. So its a fail safe
situation. There is no radioactivity or heating produced if the mini-cern Neutron producer stops.
And any Radioactivity that is produced only has a half life of a hundred years or so.
Sounds amazing dos'nt it?
Over the past year, Professor Egil Lillestol of the Institute of Physics and Technology at the University of Bergen, has been attempting to convince the world that nuclear reactors fuelled by Thorium could be the answer to the world's energy problems.
As Lillestol points out, Thorium is "three times more abundant than uranium in the earth's crust, and produces 250 times more energy per unit of weight than uranium in the present reactors". Unlike a uranium reactor, a thorium power station would produce no plutonium. Consequently, the waste produced from burning thorium in a reactor would not be such a security risk if it fell into the wrong hands, and the spent fuel rods are dramatically less radioactive than conventional nuclear waste. Dr Paul Norman of the University of Birmingham's Physics department talks in terms of "hundreds of years of radioactivity as opposed to thousands".
I hear that the Chinese are actually working on a Thorium Power Station.
Should anyone find or read anything about this...Please post it under here.
In my book Thorium is the sensible way forward into the future.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/jul/13/manchester-report-nuclearhttp://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/is-thorium-the-answer-to-our-energy-crisis-428279.html