As I wrote in the first article the original nuclear energy model was sold to US consumers as the be-all end-all of electrical power generation. At that time being "green" was not much of an issue but safety was. An the GE's and Westinghouse's (who made these reactors) told of how safe they were, how wonderful their benefits to society would be and so on.
Clean, safe nuclear power.
Experiments were done with nuclear reactors for airplane, spaceships and planes in the 1950's. I recall reading my Time/Life ENERGY coffee table book as child about these experiments and studying the pictures and captions related to nuclear airplanes.
Before nuclear power tried to come to my town no one in my family thought much about it. It seemed, in those years like a government project aimed at making our lives better. No one questioned the rhetoric - it was just accepted.
And that's what I see about the wonderful new LTR reactors. The story today goes something like this:
- Wicked humanity is going to destroy the planet with greenhouse gases.
- We must all have cheap economical energy.
- Therefore, LTR will make us all happy.
In the 50's and 60's the first item was replaced with something like "We need more energy for our future." and "LTR" in the last point was just plain old "nuclear energy." So really its the same old story.
But this time it will all be different.
Right. I scoured the internet looking for information about exactly why this is or might be the case.
I found lots of articles describing the LTR process itself: hot liquid thorium fluoride at low pressure (1 atmosphere), little danger of a melt down (heat slows the reaction process), snappy cleanup and no waste.
And Thorium itself is a common actinide (element at the bottom of the periodic chart). It is found in vast quantities (millions of tons) in nature outside the US (funny how that is). Its "mildly radioactive" on its own.
Unfortunately, as they say, the devil is in the details.
No where is there any discussion of just how the Thorium Fluoride will be created. As I wrote in the original article things like uranium processing were big "military industrial complex" sources of profits. No doubt it will be the same with this.
Then there is our own alphabet soup of regulatory agencies: DOE, FDA, and so on. What sort of regulations will be applied to this? Surely mom and pop will not be able to afford to create LTR fuel or reactors in their backyards - regardless of safety. No, No, this will be only for the "big boys" who can afford the Washington lobbyists who will lobby for the small number of special permits required to become wealthy billionaires with LTR.
Studies will be done at the finest universities. They will whatever results they are paid to find. It will all point to a brilliantly green future.
Then there will be the pilot plant - the "first one" for commercial energy. Where will it go? Our very green friends at places like the Daily Kos who ardently support the technology won't want it in their city - no, no - let someone else take the plunge first they will say. Protests will begin.
No doubt a huge area will be required to ensure safety. This will displace wildlife, water ways, migratory bird flight paths, you name it. The EPA will require studies. Lots of them. And that will be just for the plant. More research will be required on the waste products - where will they go? More years will be taken up studying things.
Then the military industrial complex will make its resurgence by actually building the first plant. The initial bids will be a few billion - but there will be tens of billions in cost overruns for "unforeseen circumstances" and "safety". It will take years to build. Protesters will line up each day with skulls and cross bones. TV and internet news will lose interest after the first few weeks - but it will pick up again as the plant nears completion.
Somewhere out west a "fuel processing" facility will be built. After all, we can't have LTR without fuel. Eventually some economically desperate state or town will be found to host the pending disaster. Billions will be spent to build a facility to employ a few hundred people. They will be sworn to secrecy and work behind barbed wire. Three headed fish will turn up downstream.
Finally the big day will arrive. Time to "load the fuel" for the first time. Time to test the plant. This will take months. Videos of trucks hauling the fuel from "out west" will air. There will be some "set backs" but eventually the plant will wobble to life. More years will pass and more billions will be spent "working out the bugs".
As with the original nuclear power plants it will turn out that the cost to operate the plant will exceed what customers will pay for the power it produces. No problem, the government clean energy backers will say, we will subsidize this because in the end it will all be wonderful. More tax dollars will be pissed away.
The "Thorium Partnership" will form outside the US to sell us their thorium - every country on earth will be a member except US. It will become expensive to mine and prepare because of the US EPA regulations. Each ton will cost a fortune. Mining thorium here will be banned because its radioactive and small children go to school nearby. We will save our thorium for the future.
With the first plant "operational" more will be planned. The cycle will repeat except the next time the designers, the government, the protesters, and the consumers will know more. Lawyers will gear up for the attack. Lawsuits will be filed.
The first plant's "first waste" will be produced. Unlike whatever was promised things will be "different". No one will want it. Good thing the plant was built on a huge plot of land. "Temporary" waste storage facilities will be built to store the spent fuel and used equipment "temporarily" - just like Zion, Illinois.
As the decades pass the promises will all be broken and the US tax payers and utility customers will be left holding the bag.
George Santayana: "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."
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