[ExI] Silence in the sky-but why?

[John Clark]

On Fri, Sep 27, 2013  Eugen Leitl <eugen at leitl.org> wrote:

>> So why isn't anybody building thorium fueled power station(s)?
>>
>
> > Because alternative fuelcycle MSR breeders are an unsolved problem.
>

And figuring out how to solve all our energy problems with the wind or bio
fuel or solar is a solved problem?? Despite a very promising beginning
virtually no money has been spent on Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) research in
almost 45 years, much less Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR) that I'm
talking about. You will never solve a problem if you don't even try.

> Nobody knows if they can be made to work eventually,


And we do know we can make wind or bio fuel or solar work eventually??

> but even if, we already know they would come too late to make a
> difference.
>

If it's all hopeless then what's the point of blabbing about it? Let us
enjoy the little time we have left! And I still haven't heard if you've
accepted my bet about the shortage of uranium, remember $1000 can buy a lot
of cans of beans that will come in handy after the apocalypse.

> First question: does it work in practice?
>

Well, it worked in 1969 at oak Ridge, and although there has been virtually
no research on thorium reactors since then I imagine such things would
still work.

> Second question, as this is a source of energy, what amount of reserves
> have worthwhile EROEI?


As president of IHAS I happen to know that "EROEI" stands for Energy Return
On Energy Invested, but I have to ask myself why would anybody use such a
obscure acronym? Is it because he expects all his readers to already know
what it means? I don't think so, I think it's an attempt to blind his
potential critics with bafflegab. By the way, "IHAS" stands for "I Hate
Acronyms Society".

  John K Clark
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