Originally Posted by MadPenguin
I read in this article that the original nuclear reactors were successfully using thorium, but then policy makers switched to uranium because at the time they wanted a bomb, admittedly my reading around this topic is limited so i dont know what to believe atm.
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Yep. Supposedly there were many heated arguments on uranium v. thorium. Uranium is better for bombs, thats what got the funding.
Thorium can work. Theres no controversy there. The problem is that all of the engineering and regulation has been geared towards uranium. Could we make a thorium reactor in a few years? Sure. But there is absolutely no way it would be legal now.. They have to come up with a whole new regulatory framework and figure out plenty of engineering challenges to make a plant that would be considered safe enough for 2010 and beyond.
Making something safe enough for 1950 standards would be relatively trivial. It would also be absurdly dangerous.. We got extremely lucky with the relative lack of major accidents in the pioneering days of nukes.
2011-10-30, 02:08 AM
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