Nothing is as powerful as an idea whose time has come - Victor Hugo
With Fuksihima going from bad to worse, nuclear energy is unfortunately being held captive. Energy requirements have to be met with nuclear energy, there is no other way out. And it can be safer and much cheaper, thanks to Thorium.
Recently, there was a curious piece on that stated an additional 1.25million tonnes of Thorium ore deposits were found in past three years. The total Indian deposits now stand at 11.93MT.
[Note: the new paper article is most likely to be wrong. The addition is likely to be 1,25,000tonnes of 0.125MT. This is because the present known reserves of India is little less than 900,000tonnes or 0.9MT]
India has the highest Thorium reserves in the world. Though the Thorium-based reactors were talked about since 1970s and lots of progress made in by Indian science, it never got the place it deserved in Indian policy making.
The turning point for was when India eagerness for UN Security Council de-facto accepted Uranium as its only nuclear solution. Lots of thorium based research and projects were put on back burner or stopped.
For the circumstances arising post World-war 2 and the Cold war and seeking of the nuclear-deterrence, lots of research was undertaken on the uranium and pulotnium fuels. Developed countries like US, France, UK, and Russia put thorium on back burner because their primary goal was energy AND weapons. For developing countries like India and China it is critical that they build and urgently add to the thorium research and development.
Uranium was simply a wrong choice for nuclear fuel. Its only advantage was that it had a good lead on other other radioactive elements in terms of research. Also, the military under whose purview nuclear-research initally was sustained preferred to build bombs.
Thorium a safer, cheaper alternative for nuclear power ....
History has demonstrated this danger. The arms race effectively contaminated the energy equation so that we now have the worst of both possibilities. We have a planet loaded with nuclear bombs, massive amounts of persistent radioactive wastes, reactors capable of catastrophic meltdowns, unmanageable radioactive contamination, expensive power, terrorist threats, and weaponized political brinkmanship. We also have a continuing dependence on fossil fuels, the filthy and polluting energy that creates a host of its own messy problems.
Given the state of industry after Fukishima, there is good amount of momentum building up for Thorium. Nevertheless, it will still take a long time to bring the entire industry on a single page.
from Telegraph
"The existing industry does not want to get the message out there that there is something wrong with uranium. If you go 15 to 20 years back with the gasoline car industry versus electric cars - they didn't want to say that there was something better because they might break the market for the existing product."
Uranium was and is a wrong choice but for over-populous and emerging countries like China and India its perhaps the only hope for energy sufficiency
China launched a $350m (£223m) thorium-fueled molten salt reactor Research and Development (R&D) program in 2011, and plans to build commercially viable plants in the 2030s, while India, which has around 16pc of the world's thorium reserves, hopes to build four new fast breeder reactors by 2020.
The research will take lots of time. India for its advantage has lot of lead even though this was squandered in past few years under "Security Council bewitched Manmohan Singh government
Kevin Hesketh, senior research fellow at the NNL, says that after years of neglect, the Government is now taking nuclear research more seriously, and believes that a thorium fuel cycle could be established in the UK within 20 years.
On Indian thorium program
A 500 MWe prototype FBR under construction in Kalpakkam is designed to produce plutonium to enable AHWRs to breed U-233 from thorium. India is focusing and prioritizing the construction and commissioning of its sodium-cooled fast reactor fleet in which it will breed the required plutonium. This will take another 15-20 years and so it will still be some time before India is using thorium energy to a significant extent.
Thorium Scam
Thorium seems to be the only element which can pull India out of its misery. Unfortunately, there are some reports which point to rampant and (extraordinarily huge) corruption affecting the Thorium resources in India. The alleged number is so huge, its hard to count the trailing zeros. The amount of corruption alleged is to the tune of rupees 40 lakh crore to 60 lakh crore... depending on which news resource you refer.
Thorium seems to be the only element which can pull India out of its misery. Unfortunately, there are some reports which point to rampant and (extraordinarily huge) corruption affecting the Thorium resources in India. The alleged number is so huge, its hard to count the trailing zeros. The amount of corruption alleged is to the tune of rupees 40 lakh crore to 60 lakh crore... depending on which news resource you refer.
Nevertheless, what is interesting is that none of the mainstream media seems to have even bothered to verify, confirm or deny that. They probably, seem to think, which appears too big to really have happened, by default may not have happened. But its a good idea for the government or other agency to look into it and put minds at ease.
This is the DAE circular which is alleged was manipulated by government which lead to the scam.
Interestingly, the original article in The Statesman which ignited the whole 'scam' has disappeared. Not sure if they have rendered any apology or corrigenda but its not available on the net now.
Recommended source: World-nuclear
Other Sources:
Thorium Scam:
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