Is safe, green thorium power finally ready for prime time?
By John Hewitt on December 18, 2012 at 12:12 pm29 Comments
If you’ve not been tracking the thorium hype, you might be interested to learn that the benefits liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs) have over light water uranium reactors (LWRs) are compelling. Alvin Weinberg, who invented both, favored the LFTR for civilian power since its failures (when they happened) were considerably less dramatic — a catastrophic depressurization of radioactive steam, like occurred at Chernobyl in 1986, simply wouldn’t be possible. Since the technical hurdles to building LFTRs and handling their byproducts are in theory no more challenging, one might ask — where are they?
The enrichment of natural uranium is the first and perhaps most difficult step to building nuclear weapons. LWRs, which by their nature require enriched uranium, were the logical choice at the dawn of the nuclear age to develop an industry around. Richard Martin, a writer for Wired and author of Superfuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, summarized the argument a little more succinctly: the US abandoned thorium reactors because they didn’t produce plutonium bombs. The larger truth, of course, is a little more complex.
Today’s nuclear industry might be described as an elephant. It would be very difficult for an elephant to evolve wings (thorium) because big animals just do not evolve wings — little animals evolve wings and they in turn might evolve into bigger animals with wings. The chosen gimmick of the proto-elephant was the trunk (uranium), at first just a little one, but as elephants got larger, their trunks got really really large; it became their defining feature.
The molten salt reactor (MSR), predecessor of the LFTR, lost out to the LWR in the early ’50s for a simple reason. When Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover got wind of the possibilities of nuclear power, he wanted and got nuclear-powered submarines. Unfortunately for the MSR, sodium would react violently if it accidentally contacted water. The baby nuclear elephant would be a small machine, but light water uranium reactors, which already had a little head start, would be the technology. It also didn’t help the case for MSRs that naval and shipyard engineers were already the best in the world at working with water. They were experts at building the corrosion resistant pumps, valves, bearings and other machinery needed to utilize it. But as Martin keenly observes in Superfuel, five decades later we see that the essential element of today’s technology, pressurized water, has become its Achilles heal.
Weinberg continued to pour his efforts into a small, workable MSR to be used as a powerplant for a nuclear airplane. This was an unfortunate misdirection. In a time when there were actual plans to use nuclear technology to dam the Straight of Gibraltar and reclaim lands long ago submerged under the Mediterranean, the idea of a nuclear airplane was not so absurd. The Cold War not withstanding, in times of prevailing peace, a flying nuclear reactor cannot count its first success as managing not to crash and destroy itself. The US and Russia ran similar programs and flew test reactors on board conventional aircraft, but ultimately both projects were scrapped.
Many people think it is not too late today, to attempt put some muscle into Dumbo’s ears so to speak, and revisit the thorium reactor. Several private efforts in the US have sprung up, led by entrepreneurs who have the knowledge necessary to do so. One project undertaken by Terrapower, funded through Microsoft’s Intellectual Ventures, is trying to build a device called a travelling wave reactor. It is a little more exotic than the MSR technology from decades ago and will require considerable effort to realize. Other homegrown efforts by start-ups like Flibe Energy, Thorium Power, and Lightbridge are struggling to fund their projects without visible government support.
Flibe Energy is looking to make ends meet by exploiting the fact that LFTRs are very good at producing medical isotopes like molybdenum-99, 90% of which we currently import from Canada. Our looming medical isotope problem is irresponsible and inexcusable as these isotopes are critical to patient diagnoses and treatment. Any health care system which fails to provide for their reliable procurement will only accelerate current medical cost inflation. Transatomic is another US-based company scrapping to survive. It is now running tests using the IR-8 research reactor at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow. Thorium Power, based outside of Washington DC, is also working with Russian scientists to use thorium fuel — not to directly generate energy, but instead to burn surplus military plutonium.
Observing the struggle of these groups just to raise capital, one might ask how the US could possibly develop thorium power on our soil if we can’t even dig up rare earths? The reason why we can’t dig up monazite deposits which contain abundant rare earths is because the ores are “contaminated” with too much, well — thorium. Apparently regulations on handling thorium — actually a rather mild, low-alpha emitter — are restrictive to the point of being prohibitive.
Efforts to organize a strategic thorium reserve in our country for future use by someone, or anyone, have emitted a plaintive cry largely lost in a system dominated by shortsighted policy and shareholder obligation. Just as our regulatory policy guarantees China’s supremacy in rare earths, so it does for thorium. Meanwhile, that which a mining company in our country must expensively handle as radioactive waste, stabilize in concrete, and return to a landfill, China is cherishing and funding with a five-year reactor plan to the tune of half a billion dollars. The industry sentiment, “if we like foreign oil dependency, we are going to love foreign nuclear technology dependency,” needs to be taken to heart.
India has shown the greatest long term commitment to thorium power, and perhaps represents perhaps its future even more than China. In 1974 India tested a nuclear bomb made from plutonium extracted from spent reactor fuel. Governments around the world were forced to face the realty of large scale commercial reprocessing. India never signed the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and was barred from international trade in nuclear technology until 2006. With the world’s most abundant thorium deposits, the country initiated a long-term plan to integrate thorium fuel reactors into its comprehensive nuclear strategy, and now hopes to have its first successes within a few years.
The thorium power industry today is highly dynamic. New players, like Thor Energy in Norway, can burst on the scene and capture world attention within a short time. Recently the journal Nature published a pair of noteworthy articles on thorium power. One of them noted that in spite of its obvious safety advantages, thorium is not a route to a nuclear future that is completely immune to proliferation risks. The authors detailed pathways by which thorium could in theory be transmuted into feedstock for nuclear weapons. They called on the larger community to independently corroborate their analysis and institute necessary oversights. The geopolitical implications for thorium energy demand that the US be more that a spectator of the serious sport it founded — we must also be part player, and part referee to the extent that which we still can.
29 comments
PeakVT • 8 days ago
"The molten salt reactor (MSR), predecessor of the LFTR, lost out to the LWR in the early ’50s for a simple reason. When Navy Admiral Hyman Rickover got wind of the possibilities of nuclear power, he wanted and got nuclear-powered submarines. Unfortunately for the MSR, molten salt would explode violently if it accidentally contacted water."
This is wrong. First, MSRs were never seriously considered by the USN. Only pressured water reactors (PWR) and liquid metal fast reactors (LMFR) were ever constructed for the USN. The only two MSRs built were the Aircraft Reactor Experiment, built for the Air Force, and the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment, built by ORNL well after the USN decided to go with PWRs. Second, liquid sodium is not the same as molten salt. Reactors with liquid sodium as a coolant are classified as LMFRs, and are also often called fast breeder reactors (FBR). Though sodium is a component of many salts, in the case of LMFRs the sodium is pure and is not a salt.
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jhewitt123 PeakVT • 8 days ago
Thanks for pointing out the oversight on the salt/sodium. Yes LWRs were apparently more advanced going into the sub situation and that no doubt didn't hurt their cause, but I am not conceding that that would invalidate the conclusion I supported.
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Michael Grimshaw jhewitt123 • 7 days ago
I have never heard of molten salts reacting violently with water - even in the original MSRE. So I asked the expert: "Is this a misstatement, or did
they use a different salt in the MSRE? I have read several times that
FLiBe salts are non-reactive with water and have a very low water
solubility."
His response: "This is a misstatement. He is confusing metallic liquid sodium for liquid fluoride salt. Fluoride salts do not react vigorously with water.
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Neon Frank • 7 days ago
China is unburdened by political elections therefore they get a lot of things done, both good and bad
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David Neon Frank • 6 days ago
One could argue this was a feature of having the US senate appointed by the state, but that ended with the 17th Amendment
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Joey Reid • 7 days ago
If you want to help raise public awareness of this issue, sign the petition on the We The People website
http://wh.gov/5Rmc
to preserve U233 used to make LFTR reactors. More info can be found here
http://thoriumpetition.com/
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PeakVT • 8 days ago
"With the world’s most abundant thorium deposits, [India] initiated a long-term plan to integrate thorium fuel reactors into its comprehensive nuclear strategy, and now hopes to have its first successes within a few years."
You left out an important part of the story here, which is that India plans to use thorium in modified PHWRs, not develop LFTRs (at least in the near future). PHWRs don't have the same advantages as LFTRs.
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jhewitt123 PeakVT • 8 days ago
Thanks for posting that incite. India's tripartite thoro-uranium program seems to have been in place for a while, and consists of several interacting but slow moving parts. If you can sort that out further your comments would be welcome.
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some_guy_said • 8 days ago
Good article.
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PeakVT • 8 days ago
"Our looming medical isotope problem is irresponsible and inexcusable as these isotopes are critical to patient diagnoses and treatment. Any health care system which fails to provide for their reliable procurement will only accelerate current medical cost inflation."
Leaving aside the validity of these assertions, they do not make a good case for LFTRs. Medical isotopes can be produced with other types of reactors, which are better understood and have been implemented successfully before in this country, and elsewhere. It would be much cheaper and easier to build a small scale HWR (which is what Canada uses to produce isotopes) than to go through the R&D process needed to make LFTRs viable at any size.
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jhewitt123 PeakVT • 8 days ago
If Kirk Sorensen told me that I might believe him. A lot of things might be much cheaper here. Why then do we, with our tumescent healthcare machine, have virtually no capability to make these isotopes other than maybe with a few accelerators, which I am guessing can't be all that inexpensive? Treatments and diagnoses based on using the best isotope for the job is a better plan than using the isotope you think you might be able to get for your patient.
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PeakVT jhewitt123 • 8 days ago
"If Kirk Sorensen told me that I might believe him."
Why? Sorensen has something of a financial interest, in LFTRs, to say the least. Aside from that, Netherlands is replacing its research and isotope reactor for about $650 million. Does Sorenson or any other LFTR advocate think they can develop a production-quality reactor for less?
"A lot of things might be much cheaper here."
Well, maybe so, in which case that should have been mentioned in the first place.
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jhewitt123 PeakVT • 8 days ago
Because Sorensen is one of the few in the field with the cojones to put his and his young family's money where his mouth is. I think he is saying, if the bozos with the slackened puppet strings can't figure a way to make these isotopes, I'll do it for you, whatever way I can. Sure I agree he has financial interest, but if that was his guiding light maybe he would have stayed in the good job he had. I am not claiming to have your hard earned knowledge of the field, my goal is to cooperate, disseminate, and contribute to the forward motion of your embattled field with the knowledge I can gather and good sense.
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Michael Grimshaw jhewitt123 • 7 days ago
A LFTR would be good method for making medical isotopes is because they can be extracted while the reactor is still operating and while making more energy than it uses. In contrast, accelerator-driven reactors use a lot of energy to make a very small amount of material.
Mr. Sorensen does not imagine that every LFTR will be equipped to remove those short-lived materials. One to three reactors would provide as many medical radio-isotopes the U.S. would need. This is simply one more mark in favor of LFTR; not a primary motivation.
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greybirdtoo jhewitt123 • 6 days ago
There is, and has been for decades, another source for medical isotopes. The High Flux Isotope Reactor (HFIR) at ORNL (http://neutrons.ornl.gov/facil.... It has produced, among other things, the raw materials for Theraseed (http://www.theragenics.com/pro... which is used to treat prostate cancer. You should do an article on it some time, I think you'd find it fascinating. (As a disclaimer, I used to work there and so am a bit biased towards the facility.)
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jhewitt123 greybirdtoo • 6 days ago
I will run that by the editors, thanks. I have heard about those hot seeds, they apparently are quite effective.
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kittyboom • 8 days ago
Though the author makes a compelling point for the LFTR technology...lets clarify a few things:
A. LFTR LWR, MSR(LSR) and HWR, refer to the reactor plants primary coolant; that highly pressurized material that interfaces with the steam generator (boiler) that turns the water into steam that turne the turbines to make electricity.
B. The accident at Chernobyl had nothing to do with LWR technology, the Soviets have long preferred MSR, specifically Liquid Sodium, as thier primary cooling medium due to its extremely high efficiency in reatining heat, compared to LWR and HWR, at the expense of safety.
C. Our use of LWR and HWR is due in part to safety.. if there is a leak, steam forms, and a steam cloud only travels so far before it dissipates in the case of accidental exposure, whereas sodium
a) explodes
b) causes fires
c) has the potential to carry radiation hundreds of miles once it vaporizes.
(sound familiar)
Additionally, water reactors allow for far more redundant safeguards, why do you think the US Navy has not had any major recordable incidients in over 50 years of operating these plants.
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W. Scott Meeks kittyboom • 8 days ago
+kittyboom I think you've confused a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... ), which is a kind of a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M... ) with a liquid metal cooled reactor ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L... ).
To address your specific points:
A. LWR and HWR generally refer to light water reactor and heavy water reactor respectively, both of which tend to be pressurized water reactors. One of the key advantages of MSRs in general and the LFTR in particular is that those reactors are not pressurized and the coolant is a solid at room temperature.
B. Chernobyl (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C... was an RBMK (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R..., which is a particular variant of the LWR (and not a liquid sodium reactor) so it is completely relevant to the article.
C. While LWR and HWR technology is certainly safer than liquid sodium technology, MSR technology is even safer for a number of reasons including operating at atmospheric pressure, coolant that is solid at room temperature, and a failsafe design in case of total power failure consisting of a freeze plug at the bottom of the vessel that has to be actively cooled.
There's plenty of additional information on the Wikipedia pages cited above.
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Uzza W. Scott Meeks • 7 days ago
Just to clarify, the active cooling needed for the freeze plug is to keep it frozen, as otherwise the fuel would drain in to a storage tank and shut off the reactor.
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PeakVT W. Scott Meeks • 8 days ago
The RBMK is a light-water-cooled, graphite-moderated reactor (LWGR), which is not a variant of LWR.
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W. Scott Meeks PeakVT • 8 days ago
Ah, you are correct; I was sloppy with my wording. I should have said "variant of a water-cooled reactor". Thanks.
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WhatTheFlux kittyboom • 7 days ago
Yes, let's clarify a few things:
Liquid sodium has nothing -- at all -- to do with molten salt.
An MSR is a liquid fuel molten salt reactor. It operates at atmospheric pressure. The soviets favored an LMBR - a solid fuel, liquid metal breeder reactor, typically molten lead or molten sodium. These are two totally different reactor designs than a molten salt reactor.
Liquid sodium is a molten metal, and molten salt is, well, a molten salt. Salt is one of the most stable substances in the universe, and molten salt operates at ambient atmospheric pressure. It is not "highly pressurized" at all. Period. While it is indeed hot enough to flash water into steam to spin a turbine, that would be a waste of heat. It's much more efficient to use an inert gas.
If a molten salt reactor leaked, the molten salt would flash any water in the immediate vicinity into steam as it cooled. Visualize molten lava cooling on a beach. But that's it. It would not - NOT - start a fire, as molten Sodium would. Again, they are two totally different substances, and two totally different reactor designs.
And since molten salt does not operate under pressure, it does not have volatile fission products in the reactor that, if they leak, would send "radiation hundreds of miles once it vaporizes." This is not, in any way, shape, or form, how a molten salt reactor would work, or how it would act if it leaked or is destroyed. At all. Period.
You are conflating the workings of a pressurized, water-cooled, solid fuel reactor and a solid-fuel, liquid-sodium-cooled fast reactor, with a no-pressure, no-water-cooling, liquid fuel reactor. They are two completely, totally, utterly different reactor designs, two completely different schools of thought, chemistry, and engineering.
And the Navy hasn't had a major recordable accident because they are highly trained professionals with excellent equipment. Operated properly and away from quakes and tsunamis, solid fuel reactors are fine. Molten salt reactors are just safer, cheaper, more efficient, much more foolproof, and much more parsimonious as to fuel consumption and waste production.
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greybirdtoo WhatTheFlux • 6 days ago
Bravo on the Navy clarification, but another factor to go with the training and equipment, is the robust and safety redundant design of US Naval reactors. The designs were focused on reliability and safety from the beginning. The training of the operating crews is top notch and continuous and designed to compliment the safety and reliability of the designs. (As you might guess, I'm a little familiar with the topic.)
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PeakVT kittyboom • 8 days ago
"the Soviets have long preferred MSR, specifically Liquid Sodium, as
thier primary cooling medium due to its extremely high efficiency in
reatining heat,"
Not true. The Soviets only built a few sodium-cooled LMFRs. The primary power reactor type is the VVER, which is their acronym for Soviet-designed PWRs. The second most common type is the RBMK. The Soviets also built several lead-bismuth eutectic-cooled LMFRs for their submarines, which were basically failures. But the majority of submarines were powered by PWRs.
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Damon Hill PeakVT • 6 days ago
Isn't it the French who have a number of liquid metal sodium reactors?
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energy_guy Damon Hill • 4 days ago
Nope, why not just google for "liquid metal sodium reactors" and find out.
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Edward Seven • 5 days ago
What about LENR?
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PeakVT • 8 days ago
"Richard Martin, a writer for Wired and author of Superfuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future, summarized the argument a little more succinctly: the US abandoned thorium reactors because they didn’t produce plutonium bombs."
I don't know why anyone thinks this. Almost all US plutonium came out of either dedicated LWGRs at Hanford or dedicated HWRs at Savannah River. The first reactors of those two types went critical well before the first PWR and BWR (and MSR, for that matter) went critical. LWRs produce plutonium, but under typical operating conditions the plutonium has too much Pu-240 relative to the Pu-239, which makes the Pu unsuitable for weapons use.
The decision to stop development of MSRs may have been foolish, but it didn't happen because LWRs make plutonium.
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energy_guy PeakVT • 7 days ago
The production of Purex in those specialized reactors at Hanford and Savannah is largely unknown to the general public and perhaps many supporters of nuclear power in general. People know that plutonium is made in many commercial reactors but not how or why or have any understanding of isotopes, half lives etc so simply mix the weapons and commercial programs together. The early commercial reactors got their early start from weapons people transferring their knowledge in atoms for peace, that also joins the two sides together even if the technologies are quite different.
Now we see some attacks on the LFTR programs because it breeds U-233 and therefore must be useful to bombs not understanding the issue of U-232 contamination. If you really wanted pure weapons grade U-233 you would need a special reactor, it would be called Hanford, same confusion all over.
Thanks for all the other comments though.
http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/143437-uranium-killed-the-thorium-star-but-now-its-time-for-round-two
Cumulative list of blogposts with label 'Thorium' (December 25, 2012):
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/12/is-safe-green-thorium-power-finally_5438.html
Is safe, green thorium power finally ready for prime time? -- John Hewitt
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/12/takashi-kamei-thorium-china-environment.html
Thorium, China, Environment , Energy Takashi Kamei (Video 33:47)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/illegal-notification-of-18-jan-2006-on.html
Illegal notification of 18 Jan. 2006 on Atomic Minerals and loot of Rs. 96,120 Crores worth Atomic Minerals - Complaints
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/govt.html
Govt. of India should act now to stop illegal mining of Atomic Minerals
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/india-announces-plan-to-build-thorium.html
India announces plan to build thorium reactor. Congrats to India's nuclear scientists.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/letter-to-chairman-atomic-energy.html
Illegal mining of Atomic minerals worth Rs. 96,120 crores
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/submit-viewssuggestions-on-mines-and.html
Submit views/suggestions on Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Bill No. 110 of 2011
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/cause-and-effect-case-study-in-and.html
Cause and effect: a case study in and dossiers on Rare earths/Atomic Minerals of India
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/dae-cancel-and-withdraw-illegal.html
DAE, cancel and withdraw an illegal notification issued in January 2006.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/atomic-minerals-include-thorium-uranium.html
Atomic minerals include thorium, uranium, monazite, zircon, ilmenite, rutile and leucoxene (Part B of First Schedule of the Act 1957)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/pm-should-ban-placer-sands-mining.html
PM should ban placer sands mining, nationalise minerals of national importance consistent with Shah Commission recommendations on manganese/iron ore mining
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/11/our-nuclear-program-will-be-thorium.html
Our nuclear program will be thorium based - APJ Abdul Kalam
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/protection-of-thorium-other-rare-earth.html
Protection of thorium & other rare earth minerals - Swamy refutes DAE claims
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/our-policy-is-to-reprocess-all-fuel-put.html
‘Our policy is to reprocess all the fuel put into a nuclear reactor’ -- Sekhar Basu
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/protection-of-thorium-reserves-in.html
Protection of thorium and rare earth reserves in the country
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/cheap-nuclear-energy-is-illusion-kumar.html
Cheap nuclear energy is an illusion -- Kumar Chellappan
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/dae-press-release-xport-of-monazite.html
DAE Press release : Export of Monazite from India. India backtracks on involving private miners in monazite - Ajoy K Das
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/thorium-loot-no-private-parties.html
Thorium loot: No private parties permitted to produce monazite, says DAE
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/cheapabundant-very-safe-nuclear.html
Cheap,abundant & very safe nuclear power.....Thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/10/protection-of-thorium-reserves-in_14.html
Protection of thorium reserves in the country
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/thorium-loot-spells-strategic-loss.html
Thorium loot spells strategic loss
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/kerala-metals-and-minerals-ltd-causing.html
Kerala Metals and Minerals Ltd causing radiation: PIL
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/separation-of-monazite-from-placer.html
Separation of monazite from placer sands and strategic needs of India's energy programme.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/nuclear-thorium-country-needs-thorium.html
Nuclear Thorium: Country needs thorium-based fast breeders -- Dr. Kalam
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/near-monopoly-position-of-company-in.html
Near monopoly position of a company in garnet placer sands
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/estimated-value-of-thorium-loot-in.html
Estimated value of Manavalakurichi placer sands loot in a decade: Rs. 1 lakh crore
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/placer-sands-exports-detailed-in.html
Placer sands exports detailed in a Criminal Petition in Hon’ble Supreme Court
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/govt-misled-parliament-on-thorium-loot.html
Govt. misled Parliament on thorium loot. Thorium a game changer for India's power needs?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/export-profiles-of-placer-sands-of.html
Export profiles of placer sands of Manavalakurichi complex
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/rare-earth-complex-of-india-containing.html
Rare earth complex of India -- containing thorium, the strategic nuclear fuel
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/indias-nuclear-energy-through-thorium.html
India's nuclear energy through thorium. Powering the world.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/thorium-could-have-powered-india.html
Thorium could have powered India
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/the-power-of-thorium-29-september-2012.html
Power of Thorium - two books reviewed. 'Super Fuel':Martin. ‘Thorium: energy cheaper than coal’: Robert Hargraves
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/10/thorium-upas-new-coalgate.html
Thorium UPA's new coalgate?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/how-far-off-is-thorium-energy-it-is.html
How far off is thorium energy? It is producing energy already -- in many reactors of India...
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/india-all-set-to-tap-thorium-resources.html
India all set to tap thorium resources
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/india-canada-nuke-pact-days-are-gone-we.html
India-Canada Nuke pact. "Those days are gone. We're not so stupid," Dr. Chaitanyamoy Ganguly, Nuclear scientist.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-to-transform-nuclear-power-pair.html Thorium to transform nuclear power. A pair of MIT students set up Transatomic Power
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/cumulative-list-of-blogposts-with-label.html
Cumulative list of blogposts with label "Thorium" (September 27, 2012). National imperative of protecting Rare earths including thorium.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-nuclear-fuel-and-iphone-are.html
Thorium -- a nuclear fuel and iPhone are born of Mother Earth. Govt. of India, conserve and protect rare earths including thorium.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/take-steps-to-protect-strategic.html
Take steps to protect strategic monazite reserves: Subramanian Swamy to PM
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-and-imperative-of-national.html
Thorium and imperative of national security - Dr. Swamy's letter to PM
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-as-strategic-mineral-greener.html
Thorium as strategic mineral: a greener alternative to uranium. India should protect her thorium reserves.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/dae-makes-strides-towards-thorium-fuel_1207.html
DAE makes strides towards thorium fuel supplies for AHWR
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-figures-unconfirmed-irel.html
‘Thorium figures unconfirmed’ - IREL
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/vver-voda-voda-energo-reactor-water.html
VVER: Voda Voda Energo Reactor, Water-cooled, water-moderated energy reactor
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/protect-india-thorium-to-transform.html
Protect India's thorium to transform the world of energy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/a-future-energy-giant-indias-thorium.html
A future energy giant? India's thorium-based nuclear plans
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/india-should-enforce-nsg-guidelines-for.html
India should enforce NSG guidelines for protection of thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/nuclear-energys-future-thorium.html
Nuclear Energy’s Future: Thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/q-thorium-reactor-designer-ratan-kumar.html
Q&A: Thorium Reactor Designer Ratan Kumar Sinha
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-fuelled-dreams-for-indias_13.html
Thorium-fuelled dreams for India’s energy future. How India’s science is taking over the world.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-poster-source-thorium-australia.html
Thorium poster (Source: Thorium Australia campaign)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/briefings-on-nuclear-technology-in.html
Protect India's thorium. Briefings on nuclear technology in India -- PK Iyengar, Retd. Chairman, AEC, May 2009
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/new-all-party-uk-parliamentary-group-on.html
New All-Party UK Parliamentary Group on Thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/china-takes-lead-in-race-for-clean.html
China Takes Lead in Race for Clean Nuclear Power -- using thorium.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/the-issue-is-india-as-nuke-power-anti.html
The issue is India as nuke power. Anti-Kudankulam leaders manipulate innocents - Pioneer Edit
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/09/india-ventures-into-rare-earths-to.html
India Ventures Into Rare Earths, To Launch Soon Monazite Processing Plant
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-is-nuclear-fuel-and-should.html
Thorium is nuclear fuel and should command immediate attention of GOI to conserve and protect the wealth of the nation.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-key-to-indias-energy-security.html
Thorium key to India’s energy security -- Sandhya Jain
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/india-plans-nuclear-plant-powered-by.html
Thorium advocates launch pressure group in UK. India plans nuclear plant powered bythorium - Guardian, UK
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/feature-article-thorium-reactor.html
Feature article: A Thorium Reactor (American Scientist, 2010)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-as-nuclear-fuel.html
Thorium As Nuclear Fuel
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thoriumgate-34-blogposts-seize-moment.html
Thoriumgate. 34 blogposts. Seize the moment to strengthen India's nuclear doctrine and energy future.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/is-thorium-biggest-energy-breakthrough.html
Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/are-beachfuls-of-thorium-sand-curse.html
Are beachfuls of thorium sand a curse? -- Rrishi Raote
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/why-should-foreign-companies-private.html
Why should foreign companies & private parties work in monazite placer deposits?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/krisastha-koil-kundal-uvari.html
Karisastha koil, Kundal, Uvari
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-reactors-dr-y-federation-of.html
Thorium for dummies. Thorium reactors - Dr. Y (Federation of American Scientists)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/upas-thoriumgate-toyota-tsusho-enters_6.html
UPA's Thoriumgate? Toyota Tsusho enters the scene.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/monazite-reserves-of-india-18-million.html
Monazite reserves of India 18 Million Tonnes (A review of seabed and placer mining deposits in India by Abhineet Kumar (May, 2011. Dept. of Mining Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Rourkela, 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-which-can-breed-uranium-233-is.html
Thorium which can breed uranium 233 is the future energy source for India. Rare earth elements; Indian rare earths -- Its genesis and growth (TK Mukherjee, IREL)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/proof-that-coir-was-used-to-export.html
Proof that coir was used to export thorium oxide in monazite. Now Toyota is inmonazite processing in India.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/wyoming-nuclear-task-force-hears.html
Wyoming nuclear task force hears thorium reactor plan
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/indian-rare-earths-genesis-and-growth.html
Indian rare earths: genesis and growth -- TK Mukherjee, IREL
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/who-looted-indias-missing-thorium.html
Who looted India’s missing thorium? -- Sandeep Balakrishna
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/after-coal-did-india-give-away-thorium.html
After coal, did India give away Thorium at pittance too?
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/great-thorium-robbery-impacting-india.html
Great thorium robbery impacting India's nuclear doctrine and energy security
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/67-years-nuclear-energy-nuclear.html
67 Years Nuclear Energy, Nuclear Destruction
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/15-billion-hole-in-ground-thorium-for.html
$15 billion hole in ground. Thorium for clean energy
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-reserve-in-country-narayanasamy.html
Thorium Reserve in the Country - Narayanasamy informs Lok Sabha
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/09/thorium-fuelled-dreams-for-indias.html
Thorium-fuelled dreams for India's energy future. How India's science is taking over the world.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/nuclear-materials-suppliers-group-nsg.html
Nuclear materials, suppliers group (NSG) and safeguards
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/08/depletion-of-thorium-reserves-from.html
Depletion of thorium reserves from South Indian beaches, impacting India's nucleardoctrine and energy security: 14 blogposts
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/black-monazite-sand-deposits-found-on.html
Black Monazite sand deposits found on beaches (India)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-fuel-cycle-potential-benefits.html
Thorium fuel cycle - potential benefits for India - IAEA publication (2005)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/thorium-alleged-export-of-sands-august.html
Thorium: alleged export of sands (August 2007 report)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/key-reserve-profiles-of-placer-deposits.html
Key reserve profiles of placer deposits: Chavara and Manavalakurichi (From Ph.D. thesis of Ajith G. Nair, 2001)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/valmikis-knowledge-of-oceanography-and.html
Valmiki's knowledge of oceanography and Mannar volcanic
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/mining-of-monazite-goi-response-in-lok.html
Mining of monazite (GOI response in Lok Sabha on 30 Nov. 2011)
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/indian-rare-earths-limited.html
Indian Rare Earths Limited
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.com/2012/08/vv-mineral-achievements.html
VV Mineral: achievements
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/theres-nuclear-gold-in-this-sand-and.html
There’s nuclear gold in this sand. And it’s being sent out with impunity – Tehelka
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/manavalakurichi.html
Manavalakurichi
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/irregularities-in-bureaucratic.html
Scam of the century involving Rs. 1340 billion thorium reserves. Irregularities inbureaucratic processes which led to encouragement of illegal mining of thorium
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/10-point-plan-nationalise-thorium.html
10-point plan: Nationalise thorium resources of India and institute strategic command for protecting and conserving Nuclear Fuel complexes
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/illegal-thorium-mining-in-india-value.html
Illegal thorium mining in India. Value of India’s thorium reserves: Rs. 1340 billion est.
http://bharatkalyan97.blogspot.in/2012/08/monday-august-13-2012-must-look-into.html
‘PM must look into illegal thorium mining’
Uranium Is So Last Century — Enter Thorium, the New Green Nuke | Magazine