Superfuel: Thorium, The Green Energy Source for the Future | Richard Martin | Talks at Google

Richard Martin was the first to write about thorium in the mainstream press. His feature story in Wired catalyzed the thorium power movement. An award-winning journalist whose work has appeared in Time, Fortune, The Atlantic, and The Best Science Writing, Martin is the editorial director of Pike Research, a leading clean-energy firm. He lives in Boulder, Colorado with his wife and son.

Abstract:

In this groundbreaking account of an energy revolution in the making, Martin introduces us to thorium, a radioactive element and alternative nuclear fuel that is far safer, cleaner, and more abundant than its more volatile sister, uranium. As we grapple with the consequences of nuclear energy disasters such as last spring's meltdown at Fukushima and the proliferation of atomic weapons, not to mention our problematic dependence on Middle Eastern oil, thorium is reemerging as an overlooked energy source. Martin thoroughly articulates the world's past and present development of thorium as an energy source, and he details its benefits as an element that can wean us off our fossil-fuel addiction while averting the risk of a nuclear meltdown.

"Richard Martin tells a story that needs to be understood for our future energy supplies rely upon hard choices. Martin makes at least one of those difficult decisions ever so much easier by educating us on our troubled history and experience with nuclear energy, and even more importantly for the future development of this essential source of 21st century clean energy. This is the type of book that can make a difference!" --John Hofmeister, author of Why We Hate the Oil Companies

"Bringing back to light a long-lost technology that should never have been lost, this fascinating, important biography of thorium also brings us a commodity that's rare in discussions of energy and climate change: hope. "-- Chris Anderson, editor in chief of Wired

"Thorium is the younger sister to uranium, less volatile, slower to self-consume, and as many have contended without success, much better suited as a source of nuclear power than uranium. Superfuel by award-winning science writer Richard Martin tells the Cinderella story of thorium in a fast-paced, insider's account. This short, well-written book is a must read for those interested in understanding thorium's past and its potential to be a clean, renewable energy source for the future."-- Cynthia Kelly, President Atomic Heritage Foundation.

This talk was hosted by Boris Debic.

[Flaser]

Mistakes:
a) Thorium first captures a neutron THEN undergoes a beta-decay chain.
b) Weapons grade uranium is *90%* enriched, not 20%... it's NOT easy!
c) For a thorium-fuel cycle reactor, the proliferation issues are more similar to how Plutonium is bred, then the enrichment issues of a "simple" U-235 bomb. The high gamma emitter U-232 contamination supposedly protects the pure U-233 bred in such a reactor, but (unfortunately) this is not as clearcut as it's sometimes made out to be.

[Flaser]

I've made these nitpicks to play the devil's advocate and help refine what's otherwise a rather good lecture.

Martin makes some really good observations about the policy and state of mind in both government and industry circles. His comparisons to Rome & parallel with the factors that brought about the financial crisis are spot on.

[ironearth]

If the U 232 is no problem why was it not used in the US WWII bomb program?? Thorium is much much common then U 235??

[andrebalsa]

Conveniently the guys from the Thorium Alliance always forget to mention the issue of doubling time in ALL their interviews, presentations and videos...
The US is the only country in the world that has any significant reserves of U-233 (the result of breeding thorium in traditional uranium-cycle reactors) and even so, these reserves would only be enough to get at most a couple of medium-sized (<500MW) reactors started in the first place. Clearly not a solution for the energy/global warming crisis and the simple reason why no country in the world has ever undertaken further work on thorium reactors in the last 50 years (beyond some simple experiments).

[SolarLightCap]

It may be a while before we can retreive Throium from the other side of the moon - in the meantime, here is an energy capture device you can wear !: click below

[larryevans]

OMG, was anyone able to sit through this whole video? Someone needs to put a stop to this guy before he destroys the whole thorium movement by boring people to death with his personal thoughts on the history of the civilized world. I wanted info on energy production with thorium. I stopped at 33 min after maybe getting 2 or 3 min of info on what I was looking for. I will have to look elsewhere, and now I know it won't be his book.