Alan, this kills your pipe dream, uneconomic, silly MSR Thorium power. Read it and weep, http://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2010-9

Your entire justification and belief is predicated on far too many societal changes, i.e. cooperative government free of vested interests, a general population which is engaged in political and economic development and most importantly a population which is not apathetic, hubristic and one which genuinely gives two hoots about what you inanely bang on about, much to the annoyance of most readers of the comments section.

Try a reboot of your brain and accept your dream will never come to fruition.
Galen

Thanks for that Galen. And your accurate assessment of my, couldn't give a rat's, fellow Australians! And that they are almost to a man, pissed by the facts!

Won't even bother to look at the authors I've suggested or even thorium in four minutes? That much (four minutes) intellectual effort will fry their brains?

Afraid as they should be that the sky will fall if we transition away from coal to safer, cleaner, nuclear and resulting in less fatalities per gigawatt than any other source of energy!

It's only a question of time before we won't be able to give away coal!

And if we accept renewables or pie in the sky outcomes like carbon geosequestration or the still unattainable on any economic grounds, the mythical hydrogen economy! We could b still trying to make it work when we follow the Titanic, economically speaking!

Does anyone who understands economics, seriously believe we can have a robust and competitive manufacturing economy or even a steel or aluminium smelting industry if we transition to battery-backed renewables? Anybody!?

Or consider based on hard evidence from a reasonably lengthy trail, that 350 MW MSR thorium will require just one ton of Thorium during a 30 year, operational lifetime. And produce just 1% as waste at the end. Waste which is eminently suitable as long life space batteries that burn up with reentry.

Yes, this transition to a nuclear power will cost over a trillion! But will create thousands of new jobs during the construction phase. And thousands of permanent more in high tech manufacturing further down the track. And more than repay a trillion-dollar outlay. Moreover, money has never been cheaper!

The cost of inaction and then hitting the carbon-neutral panic button twenty-thirty years from now will be far greater and lead to a downturn worse in every way economically, than the Great Depression!

Whereas a conventional 350 MW reactor will require 2551 tons and create as much as 2550 tons of waste!

Thorium delivers everything fusion promised but could never ever deliver! TBC.
Alan B.

Alan, I agree with you regarding the pollies and our disengaged populous.

The link I included previously is a game changer

It will kill nuclear when scaled up, that’s if the ‘powers that be’ don’t kill it, which they always try to do when it’s not in their greedy interest.

Read the link it’s a defining event and could change the world.
Galen

Those who believe that tried tested and proven MSR in any way resembles conventional nuclear power will probably think an electric car will need spark plugs and a fuel pump, that's how stark is the difference between two very different nuclear technologies.

AS for electric vehicles, Graphene highways that, #1/ replace transmission towers and millions of miles of wires. Will #2/ Allow electric vehicles to be recharged as they travel, indefinitely.

Hydrogen can be used instead of coal in metals smelting and easily made by cracking the water molecule and from inexhaustible seawater! This same hydrogen will need the flameless heat of a nuclear reactor in the production process. Again old technology revisited and modernised.

Gas turbines will run as well if not better, on manufactured hydrogen. Ships running on MSR thorium, will never ever need to refuel for around thirty years and be far, far cheaper and safer to run than any diesel variant! Will likely be all far more efficient roll on roll off ferries and submersible to adapt to increased extreme weather and storm ferocity!?

Take butchers at thorium in four minutes rather than fake links manufactured in Moscow or St. Petersberg?
Alan B.

You kid yourself Alan.

When the lights go out, the fridge doesn't work, & people can't cook their food, because the electric stove doesn't work. people will accept nuclear, but only if it really is cheap enough to compete with coal. Otherwise they will demand coal fired power & chuck out ant politicians who won't give it to them.

Hell they might even start importing yellow vests from France.

Absolutely agree, Hasbeen, and right on the money!

Alvin Weinberg, inventor and patent holder of the first operational reactor got it almost immediately! When he was offered the head Honcho post at Oak Ridge and the world's first operational Molten salt reactor, that reused and reused thorium>U233 that was reprocessed and reprocessed onsite.

It's from Alvin's (about to be destroyed) rescued extremely notes that we can extrapolate the amount of thorium one would need to use in unpressurised MSR. And that it is far cheaper (3cents PKWH) as a walk away safe energy option than Malcolm Turnbull's solar voltaic and battery back up.

Before you treble the costs with battery back up, the lowest costing solar voltaic energy in the world in daylight hours only. Was 5 cents PKWH! Cheaper than NG!

And even then required massive economies of scale, by the Arab Emirates who built it.

Malcolm keeps repeating his assertions, I believe, because he has skin in the game?

People need to look at factual, on the ground, history before rushing to judgement with only bogus links produced in Moscow or St. Petersberg as their only (the sky will fall) "evidence"?

I hope a much more pragmatic market relying on forensically examined scientific and proven discovery rather than the mischief emanating from OPEC, (weaponised fossil fuel) is what will decide on outcomes/proven science? From operational examples!

Rather than conflicted entities worried solely about their rivers of gold/weaponised fossil fuel ONLY and the devil take the planet our kids, Grandkids or western economies!

Understand, one in three of us will be impacted by cancer during our lifetimes! You, your family, me, mine?

Agree, only fools led by fools are going to effectively turn their backs on, miracle cancer cure, bismuth 213 or the world's cheapest energy, as nuclear waste burning, WALK AWAY SAFE, CARBON FREE, MSR!

Thanks for adding a little ( the market will decide) sanity to the (the sky will fall) debate.
Alan B.