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edmund_the_destroyer wrote

I have a very weak understanding of all of this, so take what I write with more skepticism than even the average internet comment.

If the wikipedia page for Liquid Flouride Thorieum Reactors (LFTR reactors) is not a hoax or mis-stated progaganda piece, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_fluoride_thorium_reactor then if LFTR is not a miracle solution it's at least a better option than conventional reactors:

  1. Much lower (zero?) risk of meltdown.
  2. Cannot be used to produce the kind of fissionable materials required for a nuclear weapon.
  3. The most dangerous waste product has a half-life of thirty years, so in less than five-hundred years the waste is harmless.
  4. Thorium is relatively abundant.

According to the same article, national governments never invested seriously in Thorium nuclear reactors in the 1950s until today because they can't be used to make weapons.

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