Thorium.

Such a reactor is called a "Molten Salt Reactor". Many different configurations are possible. Some of these configurations can harness Thorium very efficiently.

This video explores the attributes of Molten Salt Reactors. Why are they compelling? And why do many people (including myself) see them as the only economical way of fully harnessing ALL our nuclear fuels... including Thorium.

This video has been under development since 2012. I hope it conveys to you why I personally find Molten Salt Reactors so compelling, as do the many volunteers and supporters who helped create it. Much of the footage was shot by volunteers.

To support this ongoing project,

Entities pursuing Molten-Salt Reactors are...

Regular Thorium conferences are organized by:

Table of Contents
00:00 Space
17:29 Constraints
28:22 Coolants
40:15 MSRE
48:54 Earth
59:46 Thorium
1:22:03 LFTR
1:36:13 Revolution
1:44:58 Forward
1:58:11 ROEI
2:05:41 Beginning
2:08:36 History
2:38:59 Dowtherm
2:47:57 Salt
2:51:44 Pebbles
3:06:07 India
3:18:44 Caldicott
3:35:55 Fission
3:56:22 Spectrum
4:04:25 Chemistry
4:12:51 Turbine
4:22:27 Waste
4:40:15 Decommission
4:54:39 Candlelight
5:13:06 Facts
5:26:08 Future
5:55:39 Pitches
5:56:17 Terrestrial
6:08:33 ThorCon
6:11:45 Flibe
6:20:51 End
6:25:53 Credits

Some of this footage is remixed from non-MSR related sources, to help explain the importance of energy for both space exploration and everyday life here on Earth. Most prominently...

[gordonmcdowell]

Quite possibly, for 2020, I won't travel to a single conference. We will see. But I would be perfectly happy working with what I've shot to this point. Frankly, the most important asset I'm missing is not something I could ever get myself... that is laboratory footage. And at this point I expect the footage exists already, shot by everyone doing MSR work. Getting that is a matter of creating a communications piece stakeholders are comfortable letting me slot lab footage into. So if I'm spending any Gord-hours I can simply writing and editing, then I'm not-at-all feeling robbed by Covid-19.

My communications with ORNL have been quite positive, and in regards to pieces like this. It is crazy-slow, but good. The very best value I could offer MSR advocates is to help ORNL create and release presentations and interviews like this themselves. They do already create educational and promotional pieces, but not at the volume nor specificity we want. ORNL MSRW went from zero public videos from ORNL MSRW 2017, to 3 from ORNL MSRW 2018, and it looks like we will (eventually) get 9 from ORNL MSRW 2019. Maybe 2020 won't happen, but they're aware that MORE is what MSR advocates want. ORNL sure don't need me to do this, except to get the ball rolling and demonstrate demand. If ORNL (and all National Labs doing nuclear R&D) did this themselves, I could gladly become irrelevant to the creation of these basic video assets and focus more on narrative. It is the narrative videos which tend to have a bigger impact. But I can't create narrative pieces without interviews such as these. (And lab footage.)

[loneranger]

Came for Lucas, stayed for molten salt reactors

[darthbiker]

You know, besides the George Lucas cameo, this is actually quite an interesting topic for me as a lay person. I love the idea that "waste" derived from a process that powered so much of the world can be recycled for more energy instead of being buried underground or spilled into nature in a freak accident. Assuming it's practical of course.

[NavySubGuy]

Just finished watching the whole video. Did it 30min per day. This will be a game changer. I'm a former Navy nuclear engineer and really appreciate the technical details. The safety features are impressive. The efficiency is incredible. And I was amazed at how much you can eliminate the radioactive waste.

[Richard.Andersson]

Did I just see George Lucas at 4:36:18?

[AzwethinkweizSD]

Thank you for posting this. Its 6 hrs, but if you have a Bachelor's degree in a STEM subject, its definitely worth watching.

[scottmedwid]

Gordon this is fantastic. Clean energy is a complex issue and it takes time to understand. This document is pure gold to understanding where we are at and were we need to go.

[carlostruemorales]

I revisit this video once every few months. I just graduated from college with a job and finance. I thought my future for curiosity and Civil Engineering died in college. You, Kirk, and other valuable minds have reminded me just how lucky we are to have Nuclear history in our country. Thank you for sparking a love for Nuclear Energy that I never thought would be rekindled. Perhaps a career in Nuclear Energy does have a place in my future. Stay hopeful.

[w__a__l__e]

dude this channel is so under valued. this needs to be out there more.. also more kids need to see this inspire the next gen of engineers ans scientists

[oscariglesias]

This video is pure GOLD. Thanks for this amazing job, it really shows tons of working hours on it.

[mewowsingh]

Simply amazing. 6 hours of pure science.

[SubvertTheState]

I never expected a There Will Be Blood clip. "I drink your milkshake!"
In all seriousness please don't stop making content this is important for our future as a human species.

[powerofanime]

The Penn and Teller demonstration blows the mind. :)

[inwardsorder]

How ironic. A youtube video which came out 5yrs ago and could revolutionise the world only has 250k views

[allensimpsonmusic]

I'm going to be honest, the most productive thing that I think you could do with your videos, even the long ones, is leave a running annotation in a corner, or in the description (with a mention on those first 3 lines that are visible) with timestamps for when you switch topic or mention specific instances of things that could be useful.
Ex.
Thorium. 4:27:05 - Economic value of waste products // (tie this into the ability to sell the products for more than the electricity, allowing for the electricity to be sold, at cost, because the company would make more off the products)
Thorium. 1:10:20 - Why we chose plutonium, over thorium
ect.

The idea being to create a table of contents that could allow for quick navigation. This will assist both casual viewers and individuals using your videos as sources so they can find the points they need to bring up. (also a list of a series of the sources, (even citations would be better) would make your videos even more popular among students) This is just a suggestion, however I would heavily recommend the adaption of this.

[BringJoyNow]

I want to make a point, I study Nuclear Engineering, and I found this video extremely interesting, confirming some things I knew and enlarging my knowledge on modern reactors.

There is a ton of research to do, but at the same time, we cannot hope we would have this fast, because as said research for LWR is many orders of magnitude above anything else in nuclear, and those are the key towards 2050.

But when 2050 is reached, we need to have an already growing fleet of Th-U reactors (so to use both fuel, less geopolitical dependence), low pressure (to avoid the greater failures), more stable coolant/moderators and constrained in big plants containments (like modern 1500 MW plants, to avoid single separated unit, and in an urban world is possible to apply)

I'm part of it, let's create a new energy-ful world

[tongshen]

This looks interesting, I'm going to double major in nuclear engineer next year!

[jonhall]

Thumbs up if you watched all 6.5 hours! TOP GEEK!

[MatthewHolevinski]

I've probably watched this and listened to this video 25 times, and it gets better every time.

[ericasw]

This was one of the best documentary i've ever seen on such a complicated subject !
Huge kudos, because the amount of work put in this is nothing short of astonishing !