Thorium can give humanity clean, pollution free energy | Kirk Sorensen | TEDxColoradoSprings
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- Опубликовано: 7 янв 2015
- Kirk Sorensen stumbled across thorium while doing research on how to power a lunar community. Thorium is a cleaner, safer, and more abundant nuclear fuel-one that Kirk believes will revolutionize how we produce our energy.
Kirk Sorensen began his work with thorium while working as an aerospace engineer at NASA. In 2010, he left NASA to work as the chief nuclear technologist at Teledyne Brown Engineering. In 2011, he founded Flibe, a company focused on developing modular thorium reactors.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
“I think that the best thing I can do for the world is to be a great dad to my family”. This guy has his priorities straight. All the best for a noble task in your thorium energy project mate!
Yeah, overpopulating the world while polluting it with radioisotopes. I'm so impressed!
@@belalugrisi1614 the world is nowhere near being overpopulated.
@@masonmatt2145 HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Good one!
@@belalugrisi1614 why don't you start depopulating the world with yourself? It is in your own hands 😉
@@belalugrisi1614 nice 3 year old comment reply, i'm sure someone will care
You should update this, been 7+ years, love to see a new one with what has been invented in the time frame.
I liked his closing comments, "...The best thing I can do is be a good father for my family, second best thing is to ..."
I can imagine a few heads exploding after that one. If only more people saw the role of husband, wife, mother, father as being the most important thing they could do.
As a father 3 times over..it absolutely is. If being a parent doesn't completely transform you, you're doing it wrong.
i was hoping he'd show us a plan to make this thorium nuclear plant as well...
Self-imposed importance.
@@davec.3198 yeah, it transforms you into a good copper .)
If he abandoned his family and pursued his project like a *real* visionary, maybe we'd have thorium reactors by now.
I've watched a few of his talks/presentations, he seems to be knowledgeable and sincere. He seems to be a good man. In the old fashioned sense. Not seen so much these days. I hope he gets his funding and succeeds.
Corvus Crow for all of us
Absolutely
Sorenson discovered thorium reactors when he was looking for a moon colony power source. He used to work for NASA, so yes he is knowledgeable. Watch 3 or 4 of his long videos instead of binge watching the musketeers and youe will have a nice grounding in a lot of nuclear energy.
If those in power can't get their greedy hands into it, it'll never happen.
@@ripme6616 66
As a former oil driller and huge proponent of advancing all forms possible of energy technology, I applaud this guy. I also desire to make a difference/positive impact and when I follow that goal the money comes
Save your applause for Troy Reed.
The part that he doesn't tell is that thorium reactor has to be a breeder reactor by design thus making it a potential factory of uranium-233 which can be weaponized after brief concentration. That's actually why US choose to go with boring reactors. Those conventional reactors can't breed nuclear fuels thus making it easier to share it with other country without constantly checking over their shoulders.
Now that I realized this comment is 3 years old, I'll cut short here!
If Elon Musk were developing Thorium, he would need a cover to keep it secret,,so thats why he bought Twitter
The way the US government has become so corrupted, they will probably block all progress that can diminish the profits of their "lobby" donors. I don't think the US government will pause for a moment to pass legislation that will harm it's own citizens.
@@chadsimmons6347 Twitter because of the potential Mass has he can control with his AI
Hi Kirk, Thorium Reactors and Desalination Plants should be built on ships that are nearing the end of their use by date .
They can be moored in any port that is experiencing drought and draw salt water straight out of the harbour.
If the drought breaks they can be moved to another port that is experiencing drought.
Excess electricity can be fed into the city's electricity grid.
Fresh water can be pumped into the city's water mains, it would have the effect of increasing the holding capacity of rain water dams.
Salt that is recovered in the process is a valuable commodity, it can be on sold to industry.
A fleet of these ships could be greening the world.
Imagine the number of new jobs this industry would create.
This is a great idea.
Evaporation chambers would also create clean water, the problem is the size of chambers needed to quench the needs like California.
We are on the right track.
Now what to do with plastics, evaporation chambers?
Genius idea
Ships are one of the main sources of polution, next.
@@franciscorompana2985 *Consider reading more carefully. The original comment clearly stated: "on ships that are nearing the end of their use by date"? So since there are already ships in existence & always will be, we may as well allow the older ones that are not as sea worthy to be used in a productive way rather than allow them to go to a land fill, etc.*
@@Christian_Prepper "nearing the end" go to the bottom for turists.
As an M.Eng Environmental Engineer, i totally agree with what he says. From what i've learned , Th is indeed the future and nuclear power is the greenest form of energy we can hope for.
1969 was the "future".
Did you do a correspondence course in environmental engineering?
@@gtaonline-oldgiga7729 Everyone who thinks that nuclear energy is the solution for green energy. Only solar energy will bring that solution, the reason being that it is abundant on earth; all we have to do is harvest it. It is clean, free of charge, it will last for eons and there is no waste to get rid of.
How much Uranium do you think we can source from the Planet, George? How many working Thorium reactors have you seen, George?
I hope there's more behind that engineering degree of yours (like a frame and a wall perhaps).
Without having to store and guard it for 10,000 years as we have to do with the current nuclear fuel.
I love how this guy ended his talk. Because people tend not to care about the facts but they love stories, and this guy made his science into a good story. And he established his motivation as caring about people.
It feels like a lifetime ago when i decided that worshipping entertainment oriented celebrities was not only vapid, but it was also essentially poking a finger into the eye of people that ACTUALLY change civilizations for the better..
This dude personifies just that notion...I am infinitely more interested in what he has to say than 1,000 kim kardashians in 1,000 lifetimes. I love entertainers but guys like this are MY rock stars... thank you for all you do!!
Pepe (you're WELL ON your way with that kind of thinking)check out the 2014 movie called SLINGSHOT drop me note afterwards
Pepe - Damn well said!
well said
Bronze statues of Kirk Sorensen and Elon Musk will be put in City Squares all over the world for the next 200 years.
Pepe Goeth
Lithium batteries are obsolete;
The Oceans are Full of Clean
Hydrogen.
I don't know how to say it, but keep preaching thorium. It is the only way we will climb above our nuclear future.
Or our no future at all because of all out nuclear war.
So happy to have stumbled upon this,I have been a promoter of Thorium for years & cannot understand why we are all struggling for a cleaner fuel when the solution is right under our feet. If only all money spent had been on developing Thorium reactors, we'd be a lot better off. Especially the waste we are burying & leaving to our children to deal with in the future !! Thank-you, keep educating the world.
Because of the Jane Fonda antinuke Luddites, who are totally immune to reason or real science, but are politically cunning, wicked, and masters at propaganda and fear mongering. Thorium would be good for America and Western Civilization, which is why they hate it because they hate us. Look up "Agenda 21" and "Georgia Stones", you will see what and how the political elites think. Also, the World Economic Forum and their meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
The government forced push for breeder reactors ruined everything. Corruption is the main problem.
@@brucestewart3170 It wasn't corruption. It was a Cold War era imperative. That said, there's no really good excuse now.
What's really telling is that it is not even part of the conversation. It is never discussed and I imagine over 95% of people are unaware of thorium. The powers that be tell the media not to discuss it, therefore it is unknown.
Because it works.
About 1% of uranium is consumed in a conventional reactor, whereas 98% of thorium is consumed in a thorium powered reactor. The remaining 2% is short lived and some of the most valuable materials on earth. So molten salt thorium reactors are safe, cannot melt down, self regulating and zero long term waste. Sounds like what should be the future. No! Thank you, Kirk Sorenson.
The powers that be dont want us to have such tech, like George carlin said... We have owner's (now called "stakeholders") and they dont want us "useless eaters"
In there planned reset of the world.. Its a big club that and you aint in it.
These people the elites who own 80% of all the Big corporations, land, money, if they would really cared for the climate,!! Which they dont.... They would have done something about it.....since they own pretty much every major corporation it would be easy enough to order those companies to switch to all the new tech like thorium reactors....but all that good inventions and innovations that they been hording.. They dont like to share... Free power and cures for illnesses is for the remaining 500 (800) million on earth...so first they have to remove 6 billion at least people on earth... They want it all!!! For themselves
@@iargaCI I agree. Additionally, the wars we have fought over the millennia have all been in the interests of the rich, not for the common 99% folk. We fight and die for those who are our real enemies.
thats why they were banned in 1956..no fkn good for military...
HOW PATHETIC OF YOU RON - to make such claims on behalf of a business and a science that DO NOT YET EXIST IN A PRACTICAL OR WORKABLE FASHION!!!!!!!!!!!!!
You offer FOOLISH SPECULATION about a not yet workable reaction!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dear abel
Let’s remember open discourse is an important part of our growth process as a society. We have to allow people to say what they wanna say even if we don’t like to hear it because discourse is our progress ultimately is made
Success always! Dr. D.
All countries around the world should be on board with this! This will make a huge positive change around the world.
Surely one of the best TED talks. Articulate and clear, good graphics that actually aid understanding, no showboating, just great science and great history. Thank you Professor Sorenson.
This is REAL SCIENCE. Science must exist for the purpose of making life better for human civilization. This is research that serves the common good. Thank you TED Talks.
My sister did high school science in the late 1960s, due of the school in 1969.
That years textbooks were teaching about both thorium and uranium being used in reactors.
I read up on these and so this talk or a similar one 5 or 6 years ago pricked my memo on this.
The reason enriched uranium was chose is alluded to here as the reason thorium was ditched in favour of weapons grade uranium, Mmmmmm.
History has a way of brought the truth.
Thorium = safe and effective for mankind
Uranium = powered to kill at will.
Is there a tie to the string pullers?
Edit thanks for changing DUX into due SPELL caster.
Science should have no "purpose" other than gaining knowledge and answering questions. Sometimes the science tells us things we don't want to know that make us uncomfortable but we need to understand it just the same.
The more I listen about Thorium the more I learn how good this element is. "Thorium is lousy at making a nuclear weapon" that means this technology is a global export available to all of humanity.
you cant export something thats useless..it was banned back in 1956 for this reason,,wake up.. the military need nuke reactors..not salt..
I am late coming to this -- I must say the exposure to 'Thorium' is essential to the Global energy resource research theater. This must be explored much further, and no doubt it will.
Thank you, Kirk Sorensen, for your efforts and time to educate all who are, perhaps totally unaware of energy alternatives.
They've been exploring this for 70+ years now: I doubt there's much more to learn.
A great talk. The endeavour for easy, clean energy is indeed arduous. And this guy summarised nicely how human kind has gone through a great deal of trial and error in the field of nuclear energy. Our journey continues. Such guys make the journey easier..... Kudos..
I have been fascinated with thorium for a very long time. This is the best piece I have ever seen on it. Excellent work!
it was used in the u.s., back in 1956, for 18 months, then banned by the military as did not produce weapons grade material..tesla, & the pyramids, produced free world wide power.. history,,not mainstream bs..
Yes, Kirk is the "Go To man" on Thorium reactors.
Two numbers that are often misunderstood in this debate: First, dropping the bombs on Japan likely saved about 2 million lives, most of them civilian, by eliminating the need to invade. If you don't believe this, research Saipan and Okinawa.
Secondly, I recently learned that at Fukushima, there were about 10 times as many casualties directly related to the evacuation, as to the radiation released. The death toll at Chernobyl was likewise overestimated. In both cases, these were OLD technology like cars without seatbelts and anti-lock brakes, compared to what he's talking about. Thorium reactors can't melt down, if they fail, they fail to safe.
Byproducts of thorium nuclear reactor would be, molybdenum 99 for cancer diagnostics therapies and research. Zenon for NASA interstellar space travel. Excess he could be used for water desalinization and petroleum distillate manufacturing, i.e. heating oil, diesel fuel, kerosene, Etc. And the fact that it can’t blow up because it is not pressurized is just amazing.
India has the largest reserve of thorium in the world with proven 25% of global reserves in single country. It requires a 3 stage process to convert into fissile material of U-233. We are working on it and definitely will achieve the feat.
If I ever win the lottery I'm finding this guy.
finding or funding? ;)
Brilliant. I agree with him...WWII took us down the path of nuclear bombs and away from clean safe energy. I wish him much success. We need it.
Not true. It was the cold war that is guilty. Don't forget that the Manhattan Project was so that we'd have a response if Hitler's Germany and the few first class clever nuclear physicists that hadn't left managed to build such a bomb.
The WWII research would never have happened for peaceful purposes.
I can listen to Kirk Sorenson all day when he talks about the history of Thorium. He is an excellent speaker and I encourage watching all his videos on RUclips!
India and China are currently leading the thorium reactor development. Japan is progressing in developing molten salt reactor. I think 2-3 years will we be able to see a stable thorium reactor kick on.
Loudness Junior Until reading your comment, I hadn't known that anyone in Japan was working on it. Looks as though they are looking at a single-fluid design.
there is, but before fukushima accident. Idk they're still working on it or not
The example of Fukushima site#1 is an extra reason to be interested in liquid fuel because of the safety features it (liquid fuel) lends itself to.
Loudness Junior I just got back from Czeck rep. They are working on one right now.
+osp80 Actually there never was a single thorium reactor at Oak Ridge, since the labs were created until today. You should get your facts straight, at least by checking Wikipedia.
one slightly important point that kirk leaves out is that it is possible to separate U233 from the other highly radioactive contaminants via chemical separation of the protactinium 233 produced by irradiating the thorium and waiting until it decays into U233. therefore it is possible to breed fuel for a nuclear weapon from thorium. in fact it's almost as easy as breeding plutonium.
I agree with you
Fascinating. One of the best TED talks I've seen. Love the speaker's enthusiasm for Thorium as a clean and sustainable energy source.
I think it is the ONLY LOGICAL Nuclear that we have, Uranium Reactors are STILL too unsafe, Thorium is self scramming and when the load is dumped it drops it's heat very fast, Unlike Uranium, AND we have a lot More Thorium than Uranium in the crust. It is what is called a "No Brainer".
Lies
It's not actually sustainable, by the way.
But there is enough to power a world of 7 billion for 1000 years. OR: 500 million (1/14 of current level) for 15 thpusand years.
GUESS which one the elites are going for!
You are not invited to their party, even as a servant. You (and I) are to die.
That will be the reason for their party.
@@jackfanning7952 you only said one word. So you meant to say: "lie"
And yes, you did just lie.
it was used in u.s back in 1956, for 18 months,,then banned by thwe military as didnt produce weapons grade material. tesla, & the pyramids, produced free world wide power.. history,not mainstream bs..
I like Kirk Sorensen a lot. I am a nuclear engineer at US NRC and the USA needs to move fast with the development of LFTRs.
He's a good man I think. I only ever met him once back in the 90's
Francis Talbot , Soon I will seek financing for Kirk LFTRs.
@@marcl705 Ever get that finance going?
Joel Dempsey Guess he really worked at McDonald’s
Wow what an amazing speach, so well organized and explained. Its very rare I see a presentation performed so well I hope this man can see his goals accomplished in his lifetime. I love seeing people passionate about things that will help them and others improve.
When we have Thorium nuclear reactors up and running, I vote that we award Gorden with the Nobel Peace Prize for his tireless efforts to inform the world about this technology. No longer will we war with one another over energy resources, like oil. By the time our Thorium supplies are critically low, surely we'll have fusion nuclear reactors.
The idea that a thorium reactor can consume and stabilize the waste fuel from Plutonium and Uranium reactors seems like political reason enough to fund the heck out of this guy. Where do I buy stock in Capn. Kirk Sorensen ? I'm so jealous of that brain!!! Blessings on you and your family Kirk.
It's always a pleasure and inspiration to listen to Kirk Sorensen!
God Bless Kirk Sorensen!
Kirk is an amazing man that will take us to explore new worlds and new civilizations. To proudly go where no man has gone before.
Really hoping for your continued success, Kirk. Thank you.
Thank you for the clear presentation and mentioning reasons why Thorium and other compounds are better than the ones used for military reasons.
Appreciated. Tx.
Their are 7 types of nuclear reactors that use thorium.
None of them work, though.
@@LuxiusDK Of course not, nothing works if nobody bothers to fund the R&D required to make an idea work.
Advanced technologies don't suddenly spring into existence by magic; there are hundreds to thousands of people who work bloody hard to make them happen, backed by highly intelligent visionaries with deep pockets.
@@LuxiusDK yes they do France has had a thorium fuelled reactor at Greenoble operating fir half a century .
@@ronnieince4568 - you are not being funny. Why make up such lies?
Kirk Sorensen.. Very amazing and smart man. Definitely one of my idols in my own quest of nuclear engineering.
Agree! Mine too :)
Seti I q
Would someone please give him Elon Musks number... !!
Kirt Sorrenson
I would love to know more about this guy and Thorium reactors. I am climate activist and I love the idea of sustainable, low cost nuclear power
Step one. Go to google and type his name in. Boom. Your welcome. Matter of fact you never even had to make this comment telling us all that you are a climate activist and you wanted to know more. You could have just went and looked. Course, then we all wouldn't know you were a climate activist and you wanted to know more....
Stephen Morris Enough with this "sustainable, low-cost" BS! Nuclear energy does NOT have to be sustainable! It only has to last long enough for us to transition to a more permanent solution, if one is needed! FFS! You shouldn't expect nuclear to be cheap, either! It's been well-established what the financial costs of global warming and the steps to solve/mitigate it are/will be. Finantial cost is not something to be prioritized when tackling global warming!
You call yourself a climate activist? Answer me this, then: Do you love the idea of sustainable, low-cost nuclear power because it's a bonus, or because you would reject nuclear power if it doesn't fit that criteria?
I love the idea of pixie-dust and unicorns, personally.
Thorium is a non-starter and nukes in general are nothing but a massive con aimed at gobbling up loads of taxpayer funding.
@@aggroknight4259 hmm, three years on, nothing much has taken place in this field, or nuclear, we've been promised that this is a solution since the 50s and so far its not delivered cheap power or safe power, even if we began to build many reactors now, it would be another decade before they came online , we still have the issues .. who looks after these reactors when our civilization collapses ? storage ? decommissioning ? its not goign to happen, even if it should happen.
@@reverendbarker650 I bet you voted for Biden, that is why your civilization is collapsing because too many of your kind have infected the gene pool.
Thankfully Dimond batteries and the GOP might turn this around...
"Choose to start to make the best kind of future you can" Well said professor.
Impressive ideas and I wish him great success!
Kirk, that was an awesome talk. Keep at it because I do feel you are on the right track to help mankind power our future and use up all the atomic waste we have produced so far. Really great talk!
I'm watching this 7yrs after this man presented this. How far has his idea gone?
Fantastic presentation by a very competent and admirable person; awesome technology.
Kirk makes many great points!
Nice to get multiple ideas!
If I remember correctly, a chemistry professor at Penn State developed a way to separate fissionable uranium for the atom bomb by producing uranium hexaflouride. He also found many peaceful uses of flourine gas that led to products like Scotchgard. A very interesting hstorical aspect of chemistry that is not so well known today.
Yes, to make MSBR economically viable there must be marketable products produced from the fission used to produce electricity. Not cost effective otherwise. Kirk has spoken about this at length, but not well known.
Sorensen needs to be given a billion dollars to further develop safer thorium reactors in place of the suicidal U reactors that are still being used. Great talk! Bright guy!
You deserve the greatest respect for: ""The best thing I can do for the world is to be a great dad for my family and next thing I can do is to try to use my talents to bring about an energy source that can benefit all of us"". Big hugs with pure LOVE.
Great talk, comprehensive,succinct and well conveyed!
SPEED SPEAKING CLOAK AND BOMB SPEECH .. INVALID TALK . . . . . . F FOR TALK KO FOR BUSY TRUNK DEBTS ..... PAY YOUR PONY BILLS AND F KO ...... KO ...
I know I’m late but I want to thank mr. Kirk for his clear and exhaustive explanation. I was that kind of person that was brainwashed by the media and thought that nuclear energy was bad while the renewable one good. So I think that if more people that think like me before, watch this video would totally not only change their mind but also support this type of clean energy.
Join the Thorium Energy Aliance. We need to develop this before the Chinese do or we will be buying all our power plants from China in 15 years.
SEVEN years on and the "Nuclear boogie man" still holds us back....
I loved this! I’d never even heard of thorium before this. Great speech. Heavy in science (which I LOVED btw) and huge in heart at the end. Does anybody have any other links for anything relating to thorium and this company?
One of the better presentations I've seen from this channel.
I've seen a documentary on Thorium before. This is something we need to get behind. I hope someone like Elon Musk takes up the cause and runs with it. Thanks.
Bless you Mr. Sorensen. Great work!
Quality Kirk Sorensen, I feel you passion, its inspiring.
man you got this subject down pat. some serious amount of info to absorb but definalty top notch
Just saw this Dec 2022; well done and promising. As a retired Apple engineering manager and son of a U/Pu metallurgist, I relate to many of your comments. Apple engineers are a pretty nerdy lot - after all, these are engineering graduates from fine engineering schools; never saw a hoody once. And you don't need more pizza. Thorium seems promising, and perhaps a competitor to fusion, which, as you know, has its own formidable challenges. Certainly the world needs some solutions - and this seems feasible, so best of luck. Lastly, to be uber-petty, you can have airplanes without Al, but you already know that. Cheers.
This is BS, it’s dangerous and volatile
Love this guy thru & thru. A true American Hero to me...who I think more should maybe view that way. He is definitely working to become a HUGE Difference Maker.
What a lovely bloke.
A story well told about why Thorium went into second place temporarily!
Thorium reactors, along with other renewable energy sources, could be the solution to solving the long term energy crisis. As well, small scale versions could be used on spacecraft and space bases (on the moon, asteroids, Mars, etc.) to ensure safe, reliable power. Brilliant talk, Kirk.
After getting a couple of engineering degrees and starting graduate work in nuclear engineering, the whole nuclear industry started crumbling. So I was not going to to be a nuclear engineer. For a while DoE got me, and I worked in the nuclear weapons complex. I used my computer science degree to make a living but continued doing things with the American Nuclear Society. Thorium as a reactor fuel is a research topic I have been doing research on for a bit. I am really hopeful that we can shift from Uranium fuels to Thorium fuels. Hopefully before we can leave this planet for other planets. There are so many things that the USA has done badly in the area of nuclear power. Some other countries have done many things better than us.
Thank you for sharing this with us. Wish we had had the opportunity to make the decision back then.
Studied energy in school for a while and thorium is the best !!
The best at sending its operators broke, you mean?
Great video. People like you are the real modern-world supermans. Keep it up, hero!
Excellent talk, my favorite TED talk so far. Such intellect and passion. Thank You
Powerfull final words. Well said.
This boat has not yet sailed…it needs to. It IS the answer to clean, sustainable energy. And unlike a windmill and solar panels the byproducts are non-polluting. Btw it’s ultimately cheap and reliable unlike wind and solar energy. Please, somebody fund this project. Haven’t seen a plane yet with a solar panel or windmill yet.
I read about Thorium reactors in Scientific American like 8 years ago.
It talked about how the byproduct of operation wouldn't yield weapons grade nuclear fuels.
I haven't heard ANYTHING about it since then.
And you gave yourself the answer-"wouldn't yield WEAPONS grade fuels"
@@michaelbiggins7533 delusional, it's still too expensive compared to fossil fuels. it requires the will of a Nation/State, not Capital. So YOU are the problem, you ARE the Nation/State.
HOW ARE WE NOT FUNDING THIS!
This guy is brilliant. No notes, wrinkly pants and he's speaking so naturally you might think he's telling you why he loves his dog, or his moms holiday turkey. Long live thorium.
have you looked into the history..it was banned in 1956..
India has two 600 MWe Commercial Fast Breeder Reactors in the advanced stage of design. They are also designing Metal Fuel Test Reactors for next generation of reactors.
And they will never get built... because the nuclear industry blew all of its credibility away by their mismanagement of plutonium.
In the 70s/80s France built a fast breeder power station the produces 1200MWe but shelved scrapped the plant as it was not economical. I do not know what technological developments in that field has changes the economics. Perhaps you could enlighten us?
Do these Fast Breeder Reactors use Thorium as a fuel?
@@neilruedlinger4851 The French used plutonium as fuel.
@@neilruedlinger4851 thorium is used as a blanket material which absorbs neutrons to become Uranium and can be used in regular nuclear reactors. The Prototype Fast Breeder Reactor in India will use mixed oxides of plutonium and uranium
Here we are in 2019.............I would love to know what progress that Kirk as made towards commercial Thorium energy production........oh and I hope his kids are doing well.
You have your priorities perfectly lined up. Don't allow them to be changed. Your idea of reducing and or eliminating Nuclear waste is so important. God go with you on all you do.
Wishing you the Highest level of Success
Great talk answering why we don't have cheap energy today. Thank god India, and Japan will pursue thorium.
@@arnusdarnus4944 25%
@共産主義者/民主主義Quick Learn sir homi j. Bhabha
I am giving Bhabha atomic research centre exam in March for becoming nuclear scientist. Hope it happens
They won't. If the Germans couldn't make it work, the Indians don't stand a chance.
@@screamingnutbag7955 we already have a working Thorium reactor, just not a molten salt one, although some say we already have made it, since a nuclear power plant was commissioned but then everything related to the plant is now under wraps, but you can still see military personel,trucks and stuff going towards the facility on a daily basis, plus there has been excavations and large acquisition of Thorium across India, but it's under the secrets act so you cannot file an RTI for info.
@@homijbhabha8860 Who has a "working thorium reactor", exactly?
There's nothing secret about it, the Germans built one, they ended up shutting it down it was such a disastrous waste of money.
Andrew Yang (running for President) brought me here. He supports Thorium!
The problem is he is in the Democratic party. And we are as adverse to the social pollution that party represents as we are to nuclear waste.
I saw the Democratic debate that featured Andrew Yang. He was the only candidate who addressed the need for thorium-based nuclear power. As much as I Iove renewable energy and think it is important, I also believe that thorium based nuclear power is an essential part of the energy mix ito stop global warming. I remember sporting "No Nukes" buttons in the 1970's. I should have sported "No Coal" buttons instead. This was a very informative, excellent lecture on this very important yet underrated subject.
He lost.
@@lawrencebaxa6168 tr
That’s pretty awesome, too bad he didn’t get much chance to talk about it. I wish he brought it up at the Democrat debate.
Never mind being a great Dad, to only your wife and family, be a great man to all of humanity, get this new Thorium power going, without such innovations today's children may not reach middle age. A legacy of the easy life we in the west struggled for, may I pray our children don't be the last humans on Earth to witness the price we may pay for it without people like yourself.
Thank you for your work
Start @2:02 to hear the stern voice pipe in from beyond and bellow "many modern innovations that we have today." I had to look behind me!
Yeah, what the heck? Somewhat startling change.
Heather Robinson fffxkfd
Awesome
Thanks you shall soon get all the help to build it...
I am very curious about this and would enjoy listening to more talks abut it, and getting many more opinions on the subject.
I was today years old when I learned the Manhattan Project started before WW2, thank you.
It consumes existing nuclear waste? It really should be more popular.
my thoughts exactly,, but we all know that if it does not fill the pockets of politicians it is not going to happen,, greed and profits have ruled the world, not the well being of a society as a whole,, it is said that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few,, but sadly, the few are the rulers of this world.
It changes the waste into more fuel... Think "Breeder Reactor". There will always be some waste to dispose of, as well as that which can be reprocessed. But you still have to dispose of something and somewhere it will be put. Don't forget about the NIMBY's ! They want the low cost power, but don't dump the waste near them!
Well, what it does eliminate is the radiation from the 95% of the nuclear fuel that is simply there as filler - U-238, which has a half-life essentially the same as the age of the sun and Earth. In eliminating that also eliminates most of the transuranic isotopes which result when U-238 captures neutrons; namely plutonium and other long-lived isotopes. That leaves the fission products, which mainly have half-lives in the 30-year-or-less range.
Thorium won't consume the thousands of tons of fuel rods that we are cursed with. It starts with mined thorium and makes more efficient use of it.
@@Fetherko Please supply a peer reviewed science paper explaining why Thorium won't consume the thousands of tons of fuel rods? I'd be interested to find out why this is the case?
I have extremely high hopes for a Thorium Fission Reactor. I believe I heard India and France are currently building such reactors. I also was told that they can't meltdown and produce negligible waste, thus need a fraction of the room that current reactors (when I say this, I usually am picturing Palo Verde. As it's much closer to me than any other) need. Which would mean that densely populated areas could have their own nuclear power plants. With online shopping quickly killing off local shopping, especially specialty stores, many malls are being abandoned. With Thorium's ability to cool itself, it wouldn't take much retrofitting (relatively) to drop a Thorium Reactor into these abandoned shopping malls. And then the city has it's very own personal high quality power source. And while some cities will be afraid of this (here in Phoenix, where our only natural disaster is soul-crushing heat in the summer, we have next to nothing to worry about when it comes to possible threats to nuclear plants. And people will always associate nuclear plants with meltdowns, even if it's an impossibility), others with a greater quantity of repurposable buildings, like Detroit's old auto factories, can host the plants for said cities for a fee. Would create jobs and significantly improve the economy in that poor city. This large-scale increase in electricity will not only create jobs, but it can sever our dependence on foreign oil permanently. Obviously, it will be hard to sever our dependence on fossil fuels completely, but such a drastic reduction would make it to where we can supply our own demand. Everyone could drive electric cars. With the advancements in battery and supercapacitor technologies, that industry is poised for a giant leap forward, and for market dominance. Electric motors are known for fantastic torque. The new Tesla Roadster is the fastest (technically quickest, but without an Autobahn, that has more value) automobile. Tesla has a new battery plant, graphene advancements are coming by the bucket, it may not be front-page news (gossip is far more important sadly), but electronics are advancing faster than ever from production to consumption
In reality, the only ever commercial Thorium reactor went broke and nobody is likely to get another running, but that won't stop people peddling fairy stories about Thorium.
@@screamingnutbag7955 You must be referring to Dresden unit 1. A BWR which was the first ever commercially built and operated reactor. Unit one was again designed more as an early experiment, not designed to be the most powerful or profitable, but to test the abilities of a dual stream BWR that would be capable of load following on the grid.A solid fuel, the reactor was therfore not cappable of harnessing any of thorium's unique properties.
This was similar to the other solid fuel thorium reactor that was built for civilian us, Shippingport, the first PWR reactor ever made for civilian use. The sole goal of was to achieve a relatively low output of power, and figure out the techniques and requirements of running a civilian reactor. As clearly explained to the public by the lead of the project "Right now, nuclear power is an art. We want to turn it into a science". Shippingport was never designed to be cheap or efficient, it was literally ripped from a military submarine reactor to learn how to do nuclear power. The thorium was in a solid fuel form, and thus could not take any advantage of thorium's natural breeding abilitites. Despite this and the solid nature of the fuel, Shippingport still managed to end up with more fuel in the core than was imputed before its shutdown, thereby proving the capability of thorium as an effective breeder if given the proper environment.
@@screamingnutbag7955 Care to defend that thesis, you nutbag?
We could always go back to running Hemp fuel like the original Model T’s to solve transportation
Great lecture, great lecturer. Thank you.
I worked in the Stainless industry for 12 years.
You have portal alarms in that biz to keep you from receiving radioactive scrap to melt.
When large abrasive cut-off wheels were mixed in withe the load of scrap; their resident thorium would set off the rad alarm…
Fascinating.
I am not scientifically trained, and when I heard of this a few years back it seemed to be an 'alternative lifestyle' kind of thing. You know, somewhere between hippie, new age thinking, wishful thinking, and perhaps a bit of the (the less well put together) conspiracy theory. I ignored it.
I was shocked to hear this, and to realize it's real science.
Pleased, but shocked.
Now here we are in 2019 which is 4 years after this Ted Talk was Published and you know what? *NOTHING HAPPENED!* Thorium is not even on the table for development anymore.
Only for tragic political reasons.
@@DieterBuys Yes, but only because the reason is economic. The Nation/State, not Capital, needs to make the investment, so the investment is political, but still requires some kind of ROI that liberal democracies will understand and agree with. If Greta got behind Thorium, perhaps the investment might happen?
@@nuqwestr Seems to me like the continued survival of the human race is a good ROI.
@@DieterBuys Tell of a time when that was not true? ROI predates not just humans, but mammals. LOL
Andrew Yang has this on his platform!
Gawd, if I had money I would help. I really studied the Thorium fuel cycle, and the designs of the Thorium, liquid metal reactor. I've got a few ideas on how to do this as well. It really, really needs to be developed, and tested. We now have the technology, even though, the previous thorium, burner, breeder reactors previous, have worked very well.
We really really need to research and develop this technology,
I would love to help.
BRAVO!
This kind of reactor is a solution to what to do with nuclear waste, as it is used to start the reactor.
I have a friend who is a Nuclear physicist. He works on power plants. I asked him if any of this was true in Tedex tal. He says YUP .Totally !!. Everyone in the biz knows about it since its inception, its just the masses have no clue. Its because the military wanted and still always need the Toxic damaging elements of depleted uranium for weapons. On the surface in Governmental and geopolitical, they promote using it for power stations to power the world . That is why ALL the nations that have this type of uranium power stations also use it for military . depleted Urunium it was and still is the main product needed for weapons, electric power is the spin-off , NOT the other way around. The masses he says are lead to believe uranium is used for electric power stations mainly he told me. He said hey " that stuff pays me a great wage packet " he said . " War is a money racket he said "
Your mate is kidding you - he's really just the janitor.
Thorium is a failed technology that doesn't work. Everyone who is really in the biz knows that, it's just that some people are addicted to selling vapourware to get silly people to hand over money to them.
It is now 2022. And our need for clean renewable energy in abundance is in as great of demand than it has ever been. I don't know where the Professor is now or at what stage of development if any development has transpired. But everyone would benefit if more people like himself were forward thinkers set about to solve our energy crises.
This guy is freakin awesome... Loved this.
I would like to know more about your reactor like, where, how big, and what do you expect it to do... how much energy?
He does not describe any of the engineering, which is the weak point with thorium. Current reactors rely on the proliferation of neutrons to create heat. The great thing here is that you just have to drop a few control rods that slow the neutrons right down, to turn the reactor off. A thorium reactor, in contrast, generates heat by gamma radiation. It is normally started with a neutron-gun, but that is not the source of most of the heat. Instead, isotopes are created which emit gamma, and these isotopes have a half-life of 20 minutes. So if you turn the neutron-gun off, the reactor will still generate heat until the isotopes have all decayed, which is days or even weeks later. The safety feature they all enthuse about is that without the excess of neutrons, the heat generation will eventually stop. The so-called "China Syndrome" is eliminated.
But all current designs use the molten thorium not just as a heat source, but the means by which you get the heat out of the reactor, by passing it through a heat exchanger, to generate steam that then powers the turbines. In a conventional water-cooled reactor these pipes contain virtually clean water, which never rises above 200C. No shielding is needed, and in Fukushima, ersatz cooling was obtained in the explosive-damaged reactor by spraying water onto the outside of the pipes. But in current thorium reactors, the pipes are full of melted thorium at 1000C which is full of hard gamma sources, so they have to be surrounded by lead or concrete. You are not going to dissipate the heat fast enough by spraying water. In fact that would probably crack the shielding and maybe even the pipes. You certainly could not dare to let firemen close enough to spray, since they would receive huge radiation doses. So no fall-back cooling.
They make a big thing of "dumping the reactor vessel's contents so passive cooling can take place". But it is at 1000C, well above the temperature at which steel loses its strength (remember the twin towers). You are going to have to build a huge metal pan out of exotic high-temperature steels. And the convective air-flow will be enormous, to get rid of around 1GW of heat for days or even weeks. The turbulence caused in the surface of the molten thorium will probably cause particles to be vented to the atmosphere.
The only advantages of thorium that I can see are that it can be found right around the globe, and the reactor cannot be used to generate uranium or plutonium that could be used to make a bomb.
Thanks John for this factual addition from the angle of power engineering. I think this is very relevant to understand all the aspects of Thorium`s application.
Does it also mean that claims about converting conventional nuclear reactors/plants into Thorium-fuelled are unfounded?
Could someone also confirm or debunk the following claims PRO Thorium:
1. Thorium fuelling technology could have much better efficiency compared to the lower single digit % of the current ones;
2. Partially also as a result of this plus the huge natural resources of it Thorium could last up to for the next 2 thousand years of mankind or so;
3. Thorium -fuel produces nuclear wastes/residuals, which have signifantly shorter `half-lifes` i.e. waste disposal and storage would be more manageable, simply "cleaner", which has been a major counter-argument for conventional nuclear power generation?
(disclaimer: I do not want to pose as an armechair expert here, this is what I just gathered elsewhere and earlier, for I would like to verify it with the help of someone competent...)
Does molten thorium need to be used as the thermally conductive medium? That seems like an idea someone had and didn't think through
It's kind of ironic that I've been trying to find info on what the problems with thorium is and it turns out a youtube comment is where I finally find it!
Thank you so much for this interesting information, can you by chance link me where I can read further on this?
john it's an important distinction that the thorium fuel is dissolved in a fluoride, or other salt. This is NOT molten thorium.
Also, you don't need to let firemen close to it because there's no need. if the reactor is out of control (operating too hot) or you lose power, the fuel salt drains into a tank and returns to being sub-critical. There is no high pressure loop to explode, no danger of radioactive material flying all over the place in a disaster situation.
Thank you for being the first person to ever list the real challenges of Fluoride salt Thorium reactors or whatever they call them these days. Most people debunking Thorium power write for idiots. What you write gives one something to think about. What you say about the low temperature of water coming out of a Light Water, or any solid fuel reactor, is one of the reasons a better technology needs to be found. Coal burning power plants are running at over 370 degrees to produce supercritical steam. As long as nuclear power is pretty much a novelty, ultimate efficiency isn't a big deal, but if there should be a renaissance in nuclear power, efficiency and the abundance of fuel are going to be important.
I do not think these problems you mention are fatal, but Thorium reactors always did sound too good to be true. Still, the big problem is the amount of resources the coal and gas industry will use against any competition.
You're amazing, Kirk, and an inspiration
Our rejection of Nuclear power was a massive mistake, and the environment has payed dearly for it as we continue to rely on fossil fuels for our electricity