Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Technology - Thorium Fueled Power Plants

permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: permaculture

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Stephen Sherman <spsherm@msn.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR) Technology - Thorium Fueled Power Plants
  • Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:18:27 -0700

Not to dissuade the Thorium advocates, but I have not seen a a complete and detailed energy flow analysis (EROEI) done on this proposed technology. Until that is available and vetted, this is just yet another "energy savior" that will likely fall short of its promises, like the others before it.

Keep in mind that current U reactors have a very precarious energy surplus (if any) once you do a full accounting of the energy needed to mine, process, store the fuel/wastes and build the plants; even with breeder technology. Many of those same energy costs apply to Gen IV reactors and fuel cycle as well.

We've been around the block with these same promises for other energy sources. Some of the older folks here may recall when the U reactor folks were promising "electricity too cheap to bother metering." Or how about Henry Ford's Model T which used gasoline, a refinery waste product that was dirt cheap because they could not get rid of the stuff. How did those energy sources work out for us?

But ultimately, the Thorium reactor solution misses the root cause of the energy problem. The problem is not that humans need more cheap energy, although we may think it is. Rather it is that our current energy infrastructure and mindset is one which is very energy greedy, and not in touch with the larger system of which we are a part. Until we "solve" the energy problem in that context, we just continue on the same destructive path which brought us to where we are now.






Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page