Re:Thorium Instead Of Uranium: Solution To Our Energy Woes?
by cstross on Wednesday October 06, 2010 @02:47PM
(#1765272)
No, there is a problem.
But the problem is political, not economic.
A uranium fuel cycle makes it relatively easy to breed plutonium or explain why you're building enrichment plants which can be used to make weapons-grade HEU. Ergo, bombs. Ergo, proliferation-policing issues.
To move the planet onto nuclear power (as a zero-carbon solution) is therefore politically unpalatable to those who enforce the current nuclear weapons oligopoly.
A Thorium economy might be manageable without making proliferation too easy, if the fuel is converted to U-233 and burned in situ. (Certainly U-233 isn't used in weapons at present as far as I know ...)
But the problem is political, not economic.
A uranium fuel cycle makes it relatively easy to breed plutonium or explain why you're building enrichment plants which can be used to make weapons-grade HEU. Ergo, bombs. Ergo, proliferation-policing issues.
To move the planet onto nuclear power (as a zero-carbon solution) is therefore politically unpalatable to those who enforce the current nuclear weapons oligopoly.
A Thorium economy might be manageable without making proliferation too easy, if the fuel is converted to U-233 and burned in situ. (Certainly U-233 isn't used in weapons at present as far as I know ...)