Nuclear power entrepreneurs advocate using thorium as a fuel

Washington Post : Thorium, which exists in the ground as thorium oxide and is three to four times more plentiful worldwide as uranium, is getting another look as a potential nuclear fuel. It was used at an Oak Ridge Laboratory reactor from 1965 to 1969, but that program fell by the wayside when fears of proliferation cast a pall over experimental nuclear programs in the US. Advocates of thorium technology want to see existing plants, which use uranium, adapted to use thorium—or replaced, once they reach obsolescence, with liquid-fluoride thorium reactors (LTFR). LTFRs use molten chemical salts to cool the reactor and transfer energy from the fission reaction to a turbine. Because LTFRs aren’t pressurized and don’t use water for cooling, the risk of hydrogen explosions is eliminated. The nuclear industry is somewhat skeptical for the most part. In the current financial climate, neither utilities nor investors are going to eagerly embrace an unfamiliar technology.