Chemtrails ?.. are you serious?

[Ttaskmaster]

The fuel being immensely expensive and scarce

I thought thorium was supposed to be one of the more abundant substances on the planet... just not as easy to refine/enrich/make usable as other nuke fuels?

[TeePee]

I thought thorium was supposed to be one of the more abundant substances on the planet... just not as easy to refine/enrich/make usable as other nuke fuels?

Thorium is common, and molten salt reactors have a lot of promise for the future. The expensive fuel is that made for radioisotope thermal generators. That's... Complicated...

[DanceswithUnix]

Personally I think Nuclear power is a great technological solution. It would encourage me to get an electric car since technically my car would be nuclear powered!

Whilst I think nuclear is pretty cool, the costs for solar PV seem to be already much cheaper and dropping pretty fast. That makes solar + storage seem a better solution, we just need more ideas on storage.

Politicians seem pretty dense, perhaps that makes them a good material for a flywheel (though balancing it could be tricky if they keep changing their position).

[watercooled]

I thought thorium was supposed to be one of the more abundant substances on the planet... just not as easy to refine/enrich/make usable as other nuke fuels?

Yeah, as TeePee says RTGs don't use Thorium, they generally use Pu238. It's produced in reactors and there's currently something of a worldwide shortage. Some information on the Wiki article: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plutonium-238

It's a viable solution for satellites that venture too far from the sun for solar panels to be practical for example, but not really for ground vehicles. Pulling some numbers from Wiki, the USA are hoping to eventually produce something like 1.5kg per by 2025 after scaling up production, and the power output is 0.54W per gram. So the whole US output is capable of producing ~810W. And that ain't cheap either.

Edit: Yeah solar seems to be doing pretty well in some parts of the world, but the storage small print is quite a significant hurdle. It's a big hurdle for many large-scale renewables, especially if planning to phase out load-following fossil fuelled plants. Solar power towers are quite interesting as a form of storage though, especially in parts of the world with ample sunlight - using arrays of mirrors to heat a central molten salt container, and using the stored heat from that to create steam.

[Ttaskmaster]

OK, so what does use thorium to generate power and why can't they chuck one under my car bonnet or under my yacht transom?

[watercooled]

OK, so what does use thorium to generate power and why can't they chuck one under my car bonnet or under my yacht transom?

Currently, mainly as an additional fuel in some types of fission reactor. Thorium itself is not fissile so as it currently stands, it needs to be bred into fissile fuel with exiting fissile materials like Uranium to start the reaction.

As for not using it in small vehicles, much the same, numerous, reasons you don't have uranium-based reactors. E.g. shielding, complexity, security, minimum critical masses, etc, etc, etc.

[peterb]

Good article about Thrium-Uranium reactors here

https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium.html

[Ttaskmaster]

much the same, numerous, reasons you don't have uranium-based reactors. E.g. shielding, complexity, security, minimum critical masses, etc, etc, etc.

Pfft - Why worry about something that isn't going to happen...?

[TeePee]

Pfft - Why worry about something that isn't going to happen...?

If it helps, jet turbine cars were made, and there's a jet turbine motorcycle in current limited production. I know it's not Nuclear reactors level of awesome, but it's close!. Not efficient, but definitely awesome...

[Ttaskmaster]

If it helps, jet turbine cars were made, and there's a jet turbine motorcycle in current limited production. I know it's not Nuclear reactors level of awesome, but it's close!. Not efficient, but definitely awesome...

Oh, yes, I'm very aware of jet turbine vehicles, especially the MTT... I'd want one purely for the startup sound!!

[TeePee]

Oh, yes, I'm very aware of jet turbine vehicles, especially the MTT... I'd want one purely for the startup sound!!

Right? All these people obsessed with loud exhausts, but *click* *click* *click* is obviously superior....

[badass]

Whilst I think nuclear is pretty cool, the costs for solar PV seem to be already much cheaper and dropping pretty fast. That makes solar + storage seem a better solution, we just need more ideas on storage.

Politicians seem pretty dense, perhaps that makes them a good material for a flywheel (though balancing it could be tricky if they keep changing their position).

Solar plus storage is definitely better right now but I believe that there just isn't enough sun hitting the entire earth to cover our energy needs, let alone also being able to grow food etc.

Onshore wind is also now very cheap but as with solar, there's only so much you can extract.

[Ttaskmaster]

Right? All these people obsessed with loud exhausts, but *click* *click* *click* is obviously superior....

Well..... yeah. Duh. Obviuslee....!
It is actually the 'tik... tik... tik.. tik.. tik-tik-tik-tik-whhhhhhhhhhine' bit I love.

All about the engine noise, which is why a V-Twin bike or a V8 Challenger sound better to me than a super-fast racey thing with loud pipes, screaming its nuts off like an angry wasp.

Not sure what noise a nuke-engine car would make, TBH... But surely something cool could be done if it has a turbine of some kind?

[watercooled]

Solar plus storage is definitely better right now but I believe that there just isn't enough sun hitting the entire earth to cover our energy needs, let alone also being able to grow food etc.

Onshore wind is also now very cheap but as with solar, there's only so much you can extract.

There's plenty of sunlight, just it's not really concentrated in the right places, and long-distance transmission is hard. Plus there are some studies on how much of a climate impact covering e.g. deserts with massive solar arrays would have. Sand normally does a good job of reflecting light/heat back towards space, whereas black solar panels tend to absorb and dissipate far more of it.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2015...-solar-panels/

[Xlucine]

Good to know that they're getting rid of evil nuclear and doing the right thing to protect public health and reduce CO2 emissions right? Oh no wait a minute...

It's really a little ironic to claim some sort of 'green' high ground when you make emotive, knee-jerk, FUD reactions on a governmental level that fly in the face of objective data.

So much of the green lobby falls into that category. It's like the zero-waste fanatics who moan about plastic packaging on vegetables, without considering why it's there in the first place (not a conspiracy on the part of supermarkets to kill the oceans, it's because the cost of adding it more than makes up for the wastage they'd get through the supply chain as unwrapped vegetables don't last as long by a large factor - and coincidentally this also minimises emissions, land use, fertiliser runoff and all the other undesirable outputs from growing the food in the first place)

Whilst I think nuclear is pretty cool, the costs for solar PV seem to be already much cheaper and dropping pretty fast. That makes solar + storage seem a better solution, we just need more ideas on storage.

Politicians seem pretty dense, perhaps that makes them a good material for a flywheel (though balancing it could be tricky if they keep changing their position).

Flywheel materials need good tensile strength, and we all know politicians aren't good under stress

[badass]

There's plenty of sunlight, just it's not really concentrated in the right places, and long-distance transmission is hard. Plus there are some studies on how much of a climate impact covering e.g. deserts with massive solar arrays would have. Sand normally does a good job of reflecting light/heat back towards space, whereas black solar panels tend to absorb and dissipate far more of it.

https://arstechnica.com/science/2015...-solar-panels/

Based on that article, it looks like I was out by an order of magnitude!

Australia must be laughing! Fossil fuels now, solar in the future!