Except for the fact that you can use the Uranium 233 as fuel itself, and you can’t make weaponizable plutonium out of it. Sure you’ve still got the waste problem, but the thorium reactor produces less waste than an equivalent uranium reactor.
The whole reason it was never developed was because uranium had been developed for the use of nuclear weapons to begin with, so they already had all that work done and then they segued that into power production. They would have to do a lot of research and development, which costs money that nobody wanted to spend, for a program with no military purpose and therefore the government cared a lot less about it. Because we live in fucking Post World War 2 America, and if the military budget can’t be tapped for it then the government can’t be bothered.
That said, the petroleum industry is probably more responsible. They sure fought tooth and claw against the development of renewables for decades on end. Gawd forbid the rich assholes at the top have one fewer million dollars they’ll never be able to spend in their bank accounts.
As usual, greed and power are making things worse for everybody. But hey you go ahead and believe it’s because the radioactive waste is the problem.
The US didn’t use the technology, because there still too much coal and fossil fuel to burn
Or ya know, thorium reactors work by actually decaying into uranium-232, then we’re back to the waste issue.
and thorium is much more radioactive than uranium.
Except for the fact that you can use the Uranium 233 as fuel itself, and you can’t make weaponizable plutonium out of it. Sure you’ve still got the waste problem, but the thorium reactor produces less waste than an equivalent uranium reactor.
The whole reason it was never developed was because uranium had been developed for the use of nuclear weapons to begin with, so they already had all that work done and then they segued that into power production. They would have to do a lot of research and development, which costs money that nobody wanted to spend, for a program with no military purpose and therefore the government cared a lot less about it. Because we live in fucking Post World War 2 America, and if the military budget can’t be tapped for it then the government can’t be bothered.
That said, the petroleum industry is probably more responsible. They sure fought tooth and claw against the development of renewables for decades on end. Gawd forbid the rich assholes at the top have one fewer million dollars they’ll never be able to spend in their bank accounts.
As usual, greed and power are making things worse for everybody. But hey you go ahead and believe it’s because the radioactive waste is the problem.
Okay, but how big is the issue normalised to MWh produced?