Thorium: The Wonder Fuel That Wasn't 204
Lasrick (2629253) writes "Bob Alvarez has a terrific article on the history and realities of thorium as an energy fuel: For 50 years the US has tried to develop thorium as an energy source for nuclear reactors, and that effort has mostly failed. Besides the extraordinary costs involved, In the process of pursuing thorium-based reactors a fair amount of uranium 233 has been created, and 96 kilograms of the stuff (enough to fuel 12 nuclear weapons) is now missing from the US national inventory. On top of that, the federal government is attempting to force Nevada into accepting a bunch of the uranium 233, as is, for disposal in a landfill (the Nevada Nuclear Security Site). 'Because such disposal would violate the agency's formal safeguards and radioactive waste disposal requirements, the Energy Department changed those rules, which it can do without public notification or comment. Never before has the agency or its predecessors taken steps to deliberately dump a large amount of highly concentrated fissile material in a landfill, an action that violates international standards and norms.'"
Mystery lead (Score:5, Funny)
uranium 233 has been created, and 96 kilograms of the stuff (enough to fuel 12 nuclear weapons) is now missing from the US national inventory
In addition, they have about 96 kilograms of lead that they don't remember ordering. And the situation gets worse every day!
Comment removed (Score:2, Funny)
Re: Mystery lead (Score:5, Funny)
The situation is only half as bad as you might think.
Re: Mystery lead (Score:4, Funny)
Re:We should use the moon as a hazardous waste dum (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Is this about Thorium or Uranium 233? (Score:5, Funny)
They haven't yet, but they will eventually
Re:Mystery lead (Score:5, Funny)
If you think this joke went over badly with actual Nuclear Physicists, you should have seen the blank stares I got when I tried it out on a crowd of English majors.