Capitalizing on the Energy Scarcity Myth

The Fukushima Daiichi catastrophe brought the inherent safety concerns of current nuclear technology to the forefront of the world's attention. And with the focus on Japan's energy system, questions were again asked about the long-term friendliness of nuclear fuels to mankind. Storage of spent fuel has become a lightning rod for environmental groups and nuclear proponents alike. It is unlikely that the nuclear industry can survive using technology in place since man discovered its power.

People are demanding safer, cleaner energy sources to power their homes and businesses into the future. Solar and wind power, while attractive to environmentalists, are not cost-effective and scalable beyond small localized installations. Constructing transmission lines is so expensive as to limit the expansion of a national power grid based upon these renewable resource options.

Fossil fuels are constantly debated as a source of local pollution and global warming, though at this point in time much of the global warming debate has 'cooled' based upon further analysis of the data. Fossil fuels are also getting harder and more expensive to find in sufficient quantities to meet the growing demands of the planet. While the debate over peak oil, gas, and coal rages on, the simple fact is that regardless if we will run out anytime soon, the costs of extracting and transporting these fuels is going up (natural gas supply in the US being a rare exception).

Nuclear is the densest energy option abundantly available to supplement or replace fossil fuels. That is why nuclear is making a comeback in a new generation of technology that is safer and cleaner. The industry is eagerly meeting the call to develop alternatives, and one option in particular may be an effective long-term solution to the current limitations of nuclear fuel.

How do you get cleaner and safer nuclear energy? You turn to Thorium, a naturally occurring material in great abundance. Thorium was discovered in the 1800s and its use as a fuel was first confirmed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) in the 1960s. ORNL, located in Tennessee, produced a working design for several years running on thorium in a molten salt reactor. Thorium has also been used in various current reactor designs as a co-fuel with uranium. Thorium burns cleaner and produces less waste than uranium does and we have much, much more of it. Thorium is 3x more abundant than uranium and is reactor ready straight out of the ground, which makes it several hundred times more abundant than pre-processed, fuel-ready uranium.

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According to the world nuclear association, economically viable thorium is in great supply. The USA has a large deposit in Lehmi Pass in Montana and Idaho, and several other countries have large sources. In fact, thorium is present in just about every continent. Accessibility makes it attractive as a global solution to the world's energy problems.

Thorium in Current Reactor Technology

Thorium is known to work together with uranium in 90% of the world's existing PHWR (pressurized heavy water reactors) with no large increase in fuel or infrastructure costs. Thorium power requires seed fuel to get the reaction going, and as such, thorium-based reactors are seen as a positive way to reduce existing troublesome spent nuclear fuel deposits various countries are grappling with.

China started a molten salt reactor project in 2011, and Australia and the Czech Republic are JV on a project for a molten salt reactor fueled on thorium. Canada and China, in the meantime, have finished research on the inclusion of thorium into existing CANDU reactors in service today. The CANDU reactors are thought to have the shortest path to production of any existing nuclear reactor capable using thorium as fuel. The China Academy of Science Annual Budget is $3 Billion per year and rising for the molten salt reactor and other nuclear projects using thorium.

A molten salt reactor diagram

The Lightbridge company, together with the Kurchatov Institute in Russia and the Brookheaven National Lab in the US are developing a thorium-based LWR (light water reactor) and have been working on the design since 1996. The reactor design is a Generation IV, gas-cooled fast reactor using accelerator systems.

Current nuclear reactor designs used in majority of installations

India has reached the final stage of a 3-phase study using thorium as a long-term nuclear program using an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR). India intends to use Plutonium 239 as the seed fuel and sees thorium as a long-term primary source of energy.

Japanese company Thorium Tech Solution, Inc. was established in 2010 to produce Fuji and Mini Fuji Thorium Molten Salt Reactors. A demonstration plant has already been planned. AMR has signed on with Thorium Tech Solution, Inc. to represent Fuji Thorium reactors including building a reactor in Turkey.

The Laboratoire de Physique Subatomique et de Cosmologie in France is building models of a molten salt reactor based upon Weinberg's designs to see if they can make them efficiently.

The race is on to develop the best new thorium reactor solution. However, the best design, with the ability to use nearly 100% of thorium in a very simple, safe, and scalable factor, has sprung from the original molten salt reactor used at Oak Ridge.

Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR)

The purpose of the ORNL experiment with thorium was based upon a military program for developing a nuclear jet. While the research did not produce a viable nuclear fighter, it did discover a very simple and effective method of controlling the chain reaction of thorium/uranium fuel mixture in a custom version of the molten salt format. Think of the ability to quickly control the chain reaction and thereby the speed of the jet.

In essence, a fluoride-based liquid salt molten fuel containing the thorium/uranium mixture is self-regulating. When the fuel gets too hot, the reaction automatically slows and vice versa. So instead of engineers designing a system to combat pressure wanting to spew radioactive materials into the surrounding environment at the same time as maximizing power production, they are learning to harness the reaction organically. The LFTR design includes a frozen plug at the bottom of the reactor which melts automatically when power is lost, causing the fuel to run into a drain tank underground where it will safely reside until pumped out. And without power, the chain reaction with thorium simply stops.

In addition, the LFTR design promises to use 99% of thorium's power and leave very little waste in the end, compared with a much lower use rate in uranium fuels. The uranium start fuel is also burned up and can be supplied by existing spent nuclear fuels already in storage, thereby relieving the issue of storing radioactive elements for thousands of years. Indeed, the US has a strategic reserve of 3200 tons of thorium that would meet almost all of the world's energy requirements for an entire year! The reserve is stored in metal containers set aside (not inside) a mountain and has been there for years.

LFTR mock diagram

One of the greatest benefits of the LFTR design is scalability. A megawatt design could be shipped on a truck and requires no site-built containment dome or cooling systems. LFTR can be cooled passively and constructed on site in varying sizes. Californians have an energy crisis? Just ship a few of the smaller reactors and setup where necessary, not a problem! LFTR would become both affordable and available to much of the world's population where other energy solutions are not.

Weapons Proliferation and Byproducts

The US has known about thorium for a long time. We chose to use uranium because of the ability to weaponize the material. Thorium is much more difficult to weaponize than uranium, and indeed thorium reactors would be much less of a target for terrorists.

With the Atomic Energy Commission and President Nixon giving full support, the US opted for a uranium-based fast breeder nuclear reactor design and the thorium-based molten salt reactor at ORNL was de-funded. Alvin Weinberg, the founder of molten salt reactor technology, was fired from his job.

In addition to all of this great news, the byproducts of a LFTR based reactor design may be largely beneficial in other applications. Kirk Sorensen, former NASA engineer and founder of Flibe Energy, has almost single-handedly revived the work of Alvin Weinberg and molten salt reactors in the US. According to Sorensen, almost all of the byproducts of LFTR reactors fueled by thorium Flibe Energy was formed by Kirk Sorensen to market and develop the LFTR molten salt reactor. The company is currently private and investors cannot purchase shares. However, it is very likely that as the company nears a production ready design, financing in the form of share issuance will be needed. Sorensen is on record as saying that due to existing technology and the simple design of LFTR, a concerted effort could lead to a testable design in 18 months, but more likely based upon market support, LFTR will be ready in a few years.