This radioactive metal is increasingly being touted as The Answer.“Here’s a solution that’s in front of us that can solve multiple problems,” says retired physicist and IT specialist Robert Hargraves. “It can tackle global warming. To the extent that we can make fuel, we can reduce our dependency on the Mideast.”
Brief chemistry refresher course: atomic number 90, symbol Th, just two protons fewer than uranium, and four fewer than plutonium, shiny, silvery-white — and almost as common as dirt. The metal was discovered in 1828 and named for Thor, the Norse god of thunder.
Thorium’s fans — nuclear scientists and engineers, chemists and physicists, even some environmentalists — have become almost cult-like in their promotion of thorium as the solution to most of the world’s energy problems.
I'm rather curious about this, and wonder if anyone here has any perspective on the issue. Some of the claims seem rather far-fetched. Can it really be 20x as efficient at power generation as uranium, its next-door neighbour on the periodic tables?