Liquid-Fuel Nuclear
Kirk Sorensen's 10 min TEDxYYC talk (TED.com) disrupts the Nuclear Industry (eg @NEI) by exploring Safer "Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors" (LFTR), that we could+should+would have had, from the 1960's, if making bombs weren't the priority of the Cold War era."Thorium Remix" (so far 7 versions: ThoriumRemix.com) has been unpacking the contrasts, trade-offs, & opportunities between old Fuel Rod based dinosaurs & the new Liquid Fuel, Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), of which LFTR is an example ...to the horror of a complacent #BigNuclear industry (cf NEI's NEA16 panels to feel the inertia to change).Clips from Sorensen's TED talk & others' eye-opening exposés move+shake us to promote MSR. Many have already encouraged a growing number start-ups to deliver their MSRs ASAP.Viewers will shun & demand an end to Costly+Wasteful+LessSafe Fuel Rod based LWR & PWR (& even costly IFR) reactors, in favor of MSRs.But "Thorium Remix" isn't SciFi.Some MSR builders aim to have a working MSR "early next decade" (cf: Hugh McDiarmid in YouTube channel "TerrestrialMSR"); others will be quick to follow.Contrasting "Thorium Remix" & Robert Stone's 2013 "Pandora's Promise," we find, that those who view Stone's doco first will tend to embrace a Fuel Rod dinosaur (eg, GE-H's IFR PRISM), featured in it.Meanwhile. those fortunate enough to have viewed "Thorium Remix 2011" first, will tend to count themselves among the MSR (even if they label it the Thorium) Community, promoting safer, small, affordable MSR, knowing that it uses far less fuel & makes far less waste, with much a shorter required-storage period.By 2013, Stone really should have known+included more about MSR.But he - like the environmentalists who've been moved to support Nuclear Energy, since viewing "Pandora's Promise" - might not be quite as "technically minded" as their counterparts in "Thoriun Remix 2011." McDowell had the somewhat easier task of speaking to smart people, who get Climate Change, but who didn't come to the Cinema with a habit of anti-Nuclear feeling.Instead of Helen Caldicott's fear mongering, we'd read (the late) Dr David MacKay's "Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air" (free PDF: WithoutHotAir.com), and done some calculations.Some of us had already viewed Kirk Sorensen, David LeBlanc & others in Google Tach Talks. We needed trade-offs, figures & facts, that Sorensen, et al. offered, & McDowell captured so well, in "Thorium Remix 2011" etc.With no past anti-nuke "shame or guilt" to inhibit us, LFTR & MSR were an easy sell. :-)
daniel-hesslow
Best film I've seen about thorium. I would love to see this as a reality soon enough. This guy is not only really bright but he also have a sense of humor.If it is one thing you would should watch about our future energy consumption this is it. I am 16 years old and English is my second language, I understood most of this but I will warn you it isn't very easy, you got to have some basic knowledge about Chemistry.This movie made my day, faith in humanity restored... partly.Please watch this movie. Spread the knowledge. You wont regret it.
twohulls
This is a fast paced and compelling collection of lectures on Thorium power. It is well edited and entertaining. The introduction is a 5 minute teaser full of content. The information is so dense that I was tempted to re-watch the introduction. The rest of Thorium Remix 2011 slowly unpacks the subject of thorium power at a pace I could absorb.The advocates of Thorium reactors are presented honestly. The skeptics are treated the same way. The sincerity of both sides comes across. Discussion of an important energy and environmental topic is presented without attacking the character or intelligence of either side. The discussion is several questions deep rather than stopping at the first sound bite.I wish broadcast journalism could do as well.
