So what about Thorium?

[Tim Lamb]

I know nothing more than I learned from an article in today's Telegraph but would be interested in the discussion from our *experts*:-)

regards

[Michael Shergold]

Read all about it! from a few months back!!!

[Michael Shergold]

Read all about it! from a few months back!!!

[Tim Streater]

I'm guessing you're asking about it from the pov of energy generation? Can you confirm that?

[Tim Lamb]

reactive molten lead?

regards

[Tim Lamb]

In message , Tim Streater writes

Yes. Extending into sources, safety, reactor cost comparisons and all the usual thread drifts:-)

regards

>

[Tim Streater]

I'll have to check into it and come back. But:

1) The Indy article is wrong in saying that when a U235 atom splits there are some high energy neutrons produced which split other U235 atoms giving the same chain reaction as in a bomb. In fact, you need to *slow down* the neutrons - that is what the moderator is for, so it's quite unlike a bomb. 2) Carlo Rubbia is a very clever guy, that's for sure (I came across him while I was at CERN). When he noticed something wrong with an experiment he was doing, he correctly pointed the finger at the Accelerator. The Accelerator Control guys poo-pooed him, but he was able - overnight - to devise another experiment to prove them wrong. 3) He had the idea in the late 70s of using video tape for data storage, well before such tapes were developed commercially for this purpose. I knew some of the guys working on developing these at CERN. Mind you, having large numbers of data tapes which can only be read by a homebrew device is not a situation I'd like to be in.

[John Rumm]

Nice intro and link to a video here:

[John Stumbles]

article about the Chinese Thorium MSR project here:

[Steve Firth]

Tim Streater wrote: [snip]

Err I was using video tape to backup databases at St Mary's Hospital, M/Cr in the late 70s. He may have been a clever fella, but he wasn't ahead of the curve with that one.

[Chris Hogg]

Plenty of stuff if you google thorium reactor

[matthelliwell]

Physics World (Institute of Phyiscs magazine) had a good article on the various different reactor types last year. You'll have to register with the site to read it though.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Tim Streater saying something like:

Hah. I had such a device, made by 'Databacker'. I think I used it once.

[js.b1]

DDS2 DAT thinking back to HP1533A /device/null days... ?