► "Th" is a series of videos about thorium, molten salt reactors & nuclear energy. It exists as a YouTube playlist, which I update to always contain the freshest chapter iterations. "Th" is also an App for iPhone & iPad and Google Play App.
► Wondering what is thorium? Start here with a quick thorium summary: Increasing energy demand. The Challenge of intermittent power sources. Thorium's relationship to heavy rare earths. The energy density & abundance of thorium.
► I've been hard at work (in my spare time) creating Thorium Remix 2015. These "Th" chapters are me thinking out narrative approaches. When Thorium Remix 2015 is ready for peer-review (before public release), you could be peer-reviewing it.
If you don't like your peer-review of Thorium Remix 2015, you can cancel before I collect your pledge. If you do like Thorium Remix 2015, I hope you'll continue your support for Thorium Remix 2016, and beyond.
If you don't like your peer-review of Thorium Remix 2015, you can cancel before I collect your pledge. If you do like Thorium Remix 2015, I hope you'll continue your support for Thorium Remix 2016, and beyond.
► Credits and music. Our energy risk assesment is out of kilter. Custom music created by KiloWatts. Numbers used to create charts can be found in this Google Spreadsheet.
► Kirk Sorensen on the challenges of solid uranium oxide fuel rods, and the benefits of dissolving nuclear fuel in molten salt instead.
► John Kutsch observes nuclear energy's stifled innovation. AP1000 has taken over 20 years from design to market. Computer technology compared to nuclear technology.
► Regression of humanity: Kirk Sorensen recalls watching Carl Sagan's COSMOS as a kid, and again with his own children. Library of Alexandria's destruction. Energy density of nuclear power as an abundant & non-polluting means of stabilizing human civilization.
► The basics of fission. Atomic structure. Proton, neutron & electron. Criticality in a nuclear reactor.
► Nuclear Waste. Valuable fission products and transuranics are trapped together in spent fuel rods. The key to realizing their value is seperating them from a homogenous mess into distinct categories. Xenon can power NASA's ION engines. Molybdenum is needed to create Technetium-99, for use in many medical diagnostic procedures. Bismuth-213 will revolutionize cancer treatment through alpha-radio-therapy. Dissolving nuclear fuel in molten salts (instead of encasing it in fuel rods) makes harvesting and recycling fission products economically feasible.
► Greens vs Nuclear. Prominent environmentalists, climatologists and philanthropists support (or who have recently come to support) the expansion of nuclear power argue it is our most effective means to halt global warming. Robert Stone defends Pandora's Promise. Baroness Worthington and Kirk Sorensen discuss externalities and the dream of a "closed loop" economy.
► The story of Alvin Weinberg's Molten Salt Reactor Experiment. Two prototype molten salt reactors were successfully designed, constructed and operated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The Aircraft Reactor Experiment in 1954 and the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment 1965-1969. Both used liquid fluoride fuel salts. The MSRE demonstrated fueling with U-233 and U-235. Despite successful operation, the Molten Salt Reactor program was shut down. Aircraft Reactor Experiment & Molten Salt Reactor Experiment remain the only molten salt reactors to have ever operated.
► A review of nuclear accidents and their causes. Why were fast reactors created? Why do we slow down neutrons in today's reactors by passing them through moderating material? Liquid water, liquid sodium and liquid salts are examined as coolants. How safe are today's nuclear reactors?
► Dr. Helen Caldicott is the world's leading anti-nuclear activist. She has been repeatedly asked by primetime media to comment on matters of nuclear safety. In contrast to the United Nation's total of zero deaths from Fukushima radiation (past & future), Dr. Helen Caldicott estimates 3 million. In contrast to the Chernobyl Forum's 4000 (past & future), Dr. Helen Caldicott has projected "more deaths than the bubonic plague" (100 million). Dr. Helen Caldicott retired from pediatrics in 1980.