PhilG wrote:
Now that's interesting about Thorium, Psyber! Never mind the science fiction mumbo jumbo - that just might work! Are there any Thorium reactors already in operation anywhere?
What people forget is that uranium isn't the only radioactive element. It may be the most radioactive (I can be corrected on that) and if so if we can make use of a less radioactive product any major objections may be allayed.
On the other idea though - we would have to be careful not to overdo it and cause the sun to do something that puts us in any danger. I don't think we know as much about the sun as we think we do.
Heater, I can't see Port Augusta liking it any more than Mildura. And what has the coal fired power stations got to do with nuclear waste?
Phil & Sploosh,
India is now starting to build Thorium reactors, I think the first in the world, because they have the reserves of Thorium, and the non-bomb end products are reassuring to Pakistan.
The increase in mass in the sun would be slight even over many years and would only act to prolong its life. It is the ultimate furnace and all matter is just fuel. It continually absorbs asteroids and other stray rocks, and is already radioactive. The proposal was floated many years ago by Jerry Pournelle, former astronaut with degrees in Physics, Engineering, and Politics. [Now there is an interesting man!]
Thorium: Atomic Wt 232, Boiling Point 4500 degrees Kelvin Density about 11 g/ml
Uranium: ...............238 [& 235]..........4091.................................................19
Jerry Pournelle also encouraged the idea of massive solar energy collectors in space and beaming energy down to collector stations in the deserts by microwave laser. When Jimmy Carter was US president the US and Russia were well along the way to making a joint effort to achieve this and gradually move industry off the planet where waste disposable into the sun would be easy. The idea was mine the moon and asteroids, use electro-magnetic cannon powered by the solar energy to move it, smelt it and manufacture in space, and to quote Jerry, "Turn the planet into a park!"
It had actually gotten to the stage where mixed groups of Russians and Americans were training together in the Antarctic for coping with getting on with each other in a harsh environment - a Psychiatrist from Boston University, Chester Pierce, was running the training. Then Ronnie Reagan got elected and dumped it for the "Star Wars" defence programme and a new arms race which ultimately bankrupted the Russian economy.