Norway is building thorium reactor

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by billysilly on Saturday December 01, 2012 @07:13AM (#4857448)

That's nice and all, but "help reduce" doesn't really equal a "solution for waste storage", and does not change the fact that society, not the companies that built, run and extracted profits from these plants, will have to pay the costs (which we cannot even calculate as long as we don't even have a storage solution, which makes shrugging them off even more criminal -- yeah, maybe it won't be so bad, but we shrug it off because we'll be dead by then, not because we know, and that's rather weak at best, disgusting at worst).

In that wikipedia article you linked, Germany only occurs only once on that page, with a facility that has been out of operation since 1990 - WTF?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by velodrome on Saturday December 01, 2012 @07:32PM (#4859566)

I made a mistake about Germany (my info was from an old article) - sorry, about that. I did mentioned that it is not commercially viable (it requires government subsidies). Keep in mind that nuclear power is the backbone of France's energy needs (78.8%). I am sure they create a lot of waste - we should at least look at what they are doing to reduce their waste.

I agree that reprocessing is not a long term solution. However, we do have a lot of nuclear garbage and every little bit counts. Repossessing will slow the growth of nuclear garbage. Look at the amount that is recycled every year (paper, cans, bottles). Now imagine that in added to the current landfills.

Recycling/Reprocessing buys TIME (and so does electric cars, higher MPG, etc). The question is which will kill us first? Nuclear poisoning, climate change, or ourselves.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by arrrg on Saturday December 01, 2012 @10:50AM (#4857932)

That’s kinda beside the point, you know. We already have all that waste. We already have to deal with it somehow. There is no avoiding it. So we might as well add to it.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by lutze on Saturday December 01, 2012 @11:40AM (#4858136)

Ah, the "in for a penny" school of thought.

A very sensible and reasonable approach to something that could affect the future of our entire species!

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by arrrg on Saturday December 01, 2012 @01:16PM (#4858466)

Don’t be so overdramatic. If we were to use modern technology we would likely no greatly increase the amount of waste, if not decrease it.

The costs are already there. The costs are mostly fixed. The marginal costs are minimal. It’s in for 99 pennies, in for a pound.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Norway is building thorium reactor by lutze on Saturday December 01, 2012 @06:59PM (#4859491)

Why do some people on this site immediately jump all over the rep button over disagreements?

What's wrong with just having a good old argument?

You think I said something stupid, call me an idiot and tell me why.

[ Parent | on HN ]