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Atomic Car Revisited: Thorium Could Power A Vehicle for 100 Years


               
2014 Mar 14, 2:58am   1,445 views  15 comments

by zzyzzx   follow (9)  

http://autos.yahoo.com/news/atomic-car-revisited-thorium-could-power-vehicle-100-140052713.html

A car that could run for 100 years on one tank of fuel? It sounds like a far-fetched idea, but it is just what a company is apparently claiming possible with the use of an atomic fuel that was abandoned during the Nixon administration. We're talking about the sounds-too-good-to-be-true substance called “Thorium.”

Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive element. It was discovered in 1828 by a Norwegian mineralogist and identified by a Swedish chemist, who then named it after the Norse god, Thor.

If put to use properly, would be low pressure and have lower chances of danger to the environment and humans than a uranium-based reactor. The thorium reactors can be much smaller too. Like a conventional reactor, the heat produced would create steam that would power a turbine.

The report claims that small amount of the dense thorium could produce tremendous amounts of heat. A company called Laser Power Systems is attempting to employ this power source in a vehicle. The company claims that: “1 gram [of thorium] yields more energy than 7,396 gallons of gas.” By their math, 8 grams of the substance could power a thorium turbine car for a century. This is not the first time this fuel has been suggested for cars. The concept of an automobile use was brought up in the 2011 documentary “The Thorium Dream”

Could this be a viable fuel for car? The testing in the 1960s found that the Thorium tetrafluoride used in a molten salt reactor was easier to process and quicker to stop a chain reaction, but light water reactors are far more common. In the LWR, thorium produces the same levels of toxic waste as our good ole' uranium reactor. So there still may be a long way to go before we're driving atomic cars.

#environment

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1   justme   @   2014 Mar 14, 3:09am  

A much more likely scenario would be that of a commercial thorium nuclear reactors producing electricity to run cars.

But please, no-one assume this will happen anytime soon. In the meanwhile electric cars will still produce more CO2/mile than the best-of-breed hybrids, such as a plain old Toyota Prius.

Tesla model S, BMW i8 and Nissan Leaf all expel more CO2/mile than a Prius at the present CO2/kWh of the US electricty grid mix. Deal with it. And please no-one start arguing with me on this point. it is solid fact that I have explained at length before.

And no, it does not make a difference if you have solar panels on your roof. If you do, that electrical energy should be used to displace coal in the electrical grid mix, for lower overall CO2 emissions. Solar panels and a non-plugin Prius leads to overall lower CO2 emissions than solar panels and a Tesla model S. End of story.

2   justme   @   2014 Mar 14, 3:11am  

APOCALYPSEFUCKisShostikovitch says

As long as it pops 0-100 MPH in under 3 seconds, we don't care if it's running on bat shit.

I know, and I wish it did.

3   Ceffer   @   2014 Mar 14, 5:29am  

Gives new meaning to the term "car bomb".

Car Weapon of Mass Destruction?

The fertilizer industry will start lodging protests.

4   Tenpoundbass   @   2014 Mar 14, 1:05pm  

Yeah but what about the lazy asses, that would drive it dry of water, and have a full nuclear melt down in rush hour traffic?

Head on collisions couldn't be good for the fuel cell encasement.

This concept would require a world where every thing went as expected, and the Society wasn't a bunch of lazy stupid asses.

5   Tenpoundbass   @   2014 Mar 14, 1:07pm  

Nuclear powered bullet trains and vacuum tubes perhaps, or maybe someday when fully automated car travel has reduced accident car into car collisions into almost zero incidents.

6   Reality   @   2014 Mar 14, 11:31pm  

Thorium reaction needs U-235 to get started. Where would you buy U-235 for the "starter" of the car? How would you prevent shipping companies putting too many U-235 "starter blocks" together in one box truck during shipping and have a criticality accident? as in spontaneous uncontrolled chain reaction and mushroom cloud rising in the middle of the street quickly engulfing the entire city!

Yes, U-235 is really that dangerous: you can have one playdough clump of it in one hand, and another small clump in the other, then when you put your two hands together, the entire city vaporizes along with you!

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