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A comment on The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in 1966. Parent comment

Re:The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in... by rsync on Thursday October 02, 2014 @11:52AM (#8401223)
What you describe is true of the old style nuclear reactors (which, unfortunately, is all of them). I completely agree.

But new reactor designs (thorium, etc.) avoid the black swans and all of the interdependent complexity. We should be deploying them.

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Re:The USSR used a nuclear charge to stop a gas well fire in... by the_solution on Monday October 06, 2014 @09:04AM (#8415620)
Nothing you say in the second sentence is true.

Thorium reactors do not work reliably (just have a look at those that where actually built). The current designs do not work - we don't even have an idea how to do it right in theory. They absolutely are not less complex and are not in any way safer than any other nuclear reactors.

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