"Even though there may be some issues with thorium reactors"

No Canem, there are 'some issues'...there is one issue. They don't exist.

They may exist in the future but there is no such thing just now. There may be a Dyson Sphere in the future but we can't base energy policy on that.

Small modular reactors do exist and ought to form part of our energy policy now. But conflating them with possible future thorium reactors is invalid.

Mhaze. Wrong mate. Thorium power plants are currently being built in Scandinavia. In towable double hull barges that can be towed almost anywhere there's a suitable waterway.

That said, there's no viable reason we cannot build them here. Yes, there are solid fuel uranium fuelled reactors. But they use fuel that is as rare as platinum and as expensive before the fuel needs to be enriched.

Then with this type of water-cooled reactor, they operate at enormous pressure and must have absolutely reliable power supply and continual monitoring. The fuel rods are lowered and raised by electromagnets and if power is cut for any reason these electromagnets stop operating to continually control the reaction. And should this occur a meltdown is almost inevitable.

Thorium as MSR has none of these problems and uses fuel four times more abundant than uranium. does not require enrichment or constant monitoring and should there be a power failure the system self-drains into purpose-built tanks where no reaction is possible and therefore is walkaway safe.

There is very little waste from MSR thorium and the 5 or so % is far less toxic and eminently suitable as long-life space batteries. All of these factors and ability to operate unattended at ambient atmospheric pressure make power prices as low or lower than 3 cents PKWH.
Alan B.

Mhaze. In MSR technology it's possible to use nuclear waste as fuel we are paid annual millions to take! Where all practical purposes it is largely most unspent fuel. And in the process of burning it, reduce the half-life of the waste from thousands of years to 3-400 years.

A spinoff from SMR thorium is the almost costless production of the miracle cancer cure, the alpha particle, bismuth 213. This particle is attached to a cancer antibody then injected into the patient.

I've seen scans of a liver with three tumours (usually a death sentence) and after just 66 minutes completely clear. And completed without months in hospital the usual hair loss and nausea. The same outcome for many untreatable death sentence caners including some very nasty inoperable brain cancers. With little observable damage to healthy surrounding tissue.

Tell why you believe this is a bad thing for Australia and Australians. Informed Genius.
Alan B.

mhaze said "There may be a Dyson Sphere in the future but we can't base energy policy on that."

Answer- irony- A Dyson Sphere would be great- it could beam energy Down-Under and to the North during their winter- so we can always keep the heater on- there wouldn't be much need for storage- it could run the hot water systems, ovens, refrigeration- using large wave guide infrastructure. We could use Australia's space infrastructure to sell energy to the world. We could keep the Dyson satellites on the other side of the sun so that the Earth sunlight isn't blocked- and it could help with the beam distribution. We could even use the beam or the satellites to take out communist targets, mine asteroids, and beam spacecraft out of the solar system, as well as a virtually infinite supply of energy to use in subatomic particle research and the nature of reality. We will be well on our way to a type two civilization- at least in the west.

Hopefully with this easy life- digital control of weather- we don't revert to mouse utopia population disasters like China, India, and others- in a sense the better we get the worse we get- without discipline- some cultures don't seem to be ready for the responsibilities of technology. As the Unabomber says technology doesn't free it enslaves.

There were some issues with MSR thorium as a past tense fact.

Corrosion solved by traditional metallurgy and carbon blueing of the metal. The tritium problem sorted by using nitrate salt as the heat transfer medium. Nitrate salt absorbs tritium.

One would have rocks in their head to believe we can manufacture anything here using coal or gas fired power. Fusion and proton beams are still being developed but MSR thorium is available now.

Just because some labor party airheads don't want to do nuclear doesn't mean that MSR thorium doesn't exist or that we cannot do MSR thorium here and reap the reward of the world's lowest energy prices and carbon free energy to boot. And medical tourism worth annual billions as well.

I believe the why not has something to do with stalwart pollies coal and or gas energy investments and little else.

Unless you factor in insanity or the mass suicide lemming phenomena. And Australian energy consumers can get phucked.
Alan B.

Fa' God sake.

There isn't a single commercial thorium plant on the planet. Even those who are completely sold on the idea know that myriad problems remain to be resolved. It is said that China has now built a small pilot plant to test the idea and if all goes well, then they'll consider building a larger commercial plant next decade.

Given that this pilot plant was originally due for completion in 2016, those who look at this without using rose coloured glasses might realize that a commercial plant in 2030 is more hope than expectation.

Alan B has always had a problem with tense here. That a thorium plant might exist in the FUTURE doesn't mean that one exists NOW. Yet he continually complains that Australia isn't building something that doesn't exist AT PRESENT.

But those of us who inhabit the real world (you are welcome to join us Alan), not a single watt of commercial thorium electricity has ever been produced and won't be for at least a decade.