Thorium: An energy solution - THORIUM REMIX 2011

THORIUM REMIX 2011 starts with a 5 minute TL;WL summary, to hold you over until you find your Ritalin. YouTube Closed Captioning is available in English, and many other languages.

Key YouTube video components:

Q: What is thorium and what makes it special?

A: Thorium is a naturally-occuring mineral that holds large amounts of releasable nuclear energy, similar to uranium. This nuclear energy can be released in a special nuclear reactor designed to use thorium. Thorium is special because it is easier to extract this energy completely than uranium due to some of the chemical and nuclear properties of thorium.

Q: What is a liquid-fluoride reactor?

A: A liquid-fluoride nuclear reactor is different than conventional nuclear reactors that use solid fuel elements. A liquid-fluoride reactor uses a solution of several fluoride salts, typically lithium fluoride, beryllium fluoride, and uranium tetrafluoride, as its basic nuclear fuel. The fluoride salts have a number of advantages over solid fuels. They are impervious to radiation damage, they can be chemically processed in the form that they are in, and they have a high capacity to hold thermal energy (heat). Additional nuclear fuel can be added or withdrawn from the salt solution during normal operation.

Q: Are the salts safe?

A: Very safe. Unlike other coolants considered for high-performance reactors (like liquid sodium) the salts will not react dangerously with air or water. This is because they are already in their most stable chemical form. Their properties do not change even under intense radiation, unlike all solid forms of nuclear fuel.

Q: What is nuclear waste and how does a liquid-fluoride reactor address this issue?

A: So-called "nuclear waste" or spent-nuclear fuel is produced in conventional (solid-core) nuclear reactors because they are unable to extract all of the nuclear energy from their fuel before they have to shutdown. LFTR addresses this issue by using a form of nuclear fuel (liquid-fluoride salts of thorium) that allow complete extraction of nuclear energy from the fuel.

"Fluid Fuel Reactors", James A. Lane, U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, 1958.

[graemeab]

Why am I only seeing this years later.

This should be the biggest story in "news".

[aaronanderson]

10:38

"in focus"
"not out of focus"
"maybe you need glasses"
"try squinting"
"try 3D glasses"
"ooops"

[Rachel]

woah... why haven't i heard about this before? this is crazy cool.

[jvarennes]

Thanks a million to John Laurie who did the translation into french.
Even if I'm able to understand english, such scientific subjects with dedicated vocabulary would have been too much for me, I could never watch this video for nearly two hours !

[flexabustbergson]

"-...And one poor guy got impaled to the ceiling by a control rod so ...
-That's gotta be the coolest way to die"
hahaha

[SureshKaria]

This side of YouTube is rare, do stuck to it. Thanks for the awesome video man

[Researchdigo]

Hey! San Onofre!! I've been inside the steam generator - I've worked over the massive the turbines, etc.
I was thunderstruck (in awe of) Unit One - Until I worked at Units 2 and 3. EVERYTHING in them is massive.
While in construction phase we had a lot of prank fun. - Once they started putting in the heavy water, fuel rods, etc, we could get fired immediately, and escorted to our cars with armed security for any reason they thought a threat. (All joking stopped.)
My security clearance was as high as the President's.
An incredible time in my life.

[francistalbot]

I got your CDs on the thorium Reactors. We must bring this technology back to the USA.

I am a PE Nuclear Engineer in the State of Maryland and a US NRC reactor engineer inspector and technical reviewer.

I love this reactor technology.

It is total common sense and a must for the energy future of the world.

[minutestomidnight]

Utterly brilliant. Not only the simplicity and pure genius of LFTR, but this entire REMIX was really cleverly put together. Very witty and succinct, encompassing all sides of the idea and addressing opposing viewpoints very clearly based on statistical and evidence-based arguments. 

I had no idea America had even DESIGNED a thorium reactor. And a low-pressure system at that! Of course America designs something brilliant and only the Chinese government figures out how to use it. Should have guessed really...

In my country, "environmentalism" is basically an excuse for our government to hit us over the head with counter-productive and inane policies, but I'm surprised that in America where people really band together and care about the environment that they would be so... stupid. Does anyone in Greenpeace do their homework at all?? I went looking around and couldn't find one concise coherent argument against LFTR that WASN'T based on misinformation or misunderstanding. 

I still think Fusion is ultimately going to be the way to go for space-based projects and expansion etc., but the technology still isn't advanced enough yet. In the meantime, LFTR is the best option I've read about for safe, sustainable renewable energy sources.

[yurpurt]

Thank you for putting up these videos, and remixes of the longer presentations into formats that appeal to a range of potentially interested people. I really hope this technology takes flight in the coming years; if only for the selfish desire to see us all propelled into a new age of enlightenment (I can dream!) :)

[samcarman]

Thanks for the captions. I know how much work goes into that, and really appreciated them.

[MrVaticanRag]

The been watching Gordon's videos for over 10 years and most more than once - but I can't remember watching this one more than once ( maybe being 2 hours long) but it really is a great remix of some of the best cuts from all those others meticulously archived by Gordon. So please appreciate what has been achieved here and thank you Gordon.🥝🥝🙏

[CoachZed]

I work at Hanford Nuclear Reservation and was talking with one of my managers about B Reactor, and he was trying to give us a little bit of pop trivia about Xenon-135 and B-Reactor. He asked who discovered the neutron poisoning and I said with much certainty that it was Wigner after having watched this video in the past. My manager however stood his ground and said that Fermi discovered it. Wikipedia does have his back, but we know how that goes. I had to double check, and sure enough, around the 28 minute mark, Kirk gives credit to Wigner. My question, is who was it really?

[RustyOn]

I wasn't optimistic about nuclear energy but after watcing this. It simply made me wonder why the whole world isn't using #thorium    #LFTR  tech. But good luck to China and Norway for pursuing this miracle fuel. 

[andrew]

Gordon - great video! I watched the whole thing over at Atomic Insights. Thank you for your work and I'm so glad you took/made the time to do this, and all of the other videos you've done for EnergyFromThorium. I was at Protospace and met Kirk; I'm counting that as a high point of my life. IMO this is a brilliant documentary. I also love your "What is Thorium" trailer. I hope you're looking for broadcast and theatrical distribution.

[MaddrellRoger]

You've done a great job Gordon. Condensing so much important and gripping info into 5 minutes was always going to be a challenge.

This is such important stuff and it frustrates me that many people just don't get it.
I smiled when I read banthur's complaint that the video went for two f*?**ing hours! Even after the timer countdown showed the 5 minutes were finished, the poor soul musn't have known how to turn it off and had to sit there for two whole hours! Life must be so hard for banthur!

[RyanPape]

Thought provoking. I just wish it was easier to watch, all of the hard cuts and lack of pauses and continuity make it very difficult to follow. It's like reading a very long essay, written on napkins, in 20 alternating styles of handwriting.

[GraceLorraine]

I LOVE the question he asks near the end; it's something like 'how would you live your life differently, if you had plenty of cheap easy energy that wasn't damaging Earth?'

[andrew]

Gordon - super work as always, and I look forward to more of the TEAC 4 videos. I also really enjoyed Kirk's tour of the US Space and Rocket center in Huntsville with Baroness
Worthington. I've already done an excerpt from Dr. David LeBlanc's presentation - and it's got a couple of views. Thanks for making all of these CC licensed.

[johndoe-hmlj]

The powers that be dont want this to come to light. This is reliable, cheap, efficient, and safe energy. All this means there is low profits in it for them and they wont go that route. This is why scientists and engineers need to rule the world with data and truth vrs politics and the "I fear this" statement.