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    Posted November 2, 2012 by
    SABrown
    Location
    Millville, New Jersey
    Assignment
    Assignment
    This iReport is part of an assignment:
    Your vision for America


    Prosperity through Energy Independence

     
    The key to energy independence and renewed prosperity is the molten salt reactor developed by Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s. It is fueled by thorium, which is four times more abundant than uranium and does not require enrichment. The MSR is far more efficient in the utilization of fuel than conventional uranium reactors, creating only a tiny fraction of the waste. Energy from thorium can power the grid, cheaper than coal. Using water and carbon dioxide as raw materials, energy from thorium can be used to make clean-burning liquid hydrocarbon fuels in a carbon neutral cycle, ending our reliance on imported oil. Hundreds of billions of dollars that now go to foreign oil exporters could instead go into the domestic energy sector, creating millions of jobs. Affordable electricity can power manufacturing, boosting our exports, creating additional millions of jobs, ending our trade deficit, ending inflation caused by rising oil prices, and ending deficit spending by government as tax revenues increase from a robust economy.

    We need to have the Nuclear Regulatory Commission create a regulatory framework to allow thorium molten salt reactor development by companies such as Flibe Energy in Huntsville, Alabama. The reason this technology is not already in place is because it was incompatible with making material for nuclear weapons when the MSR project at Oak Ridge was canceled by the Nixon administration. The national laboratory had built and demonstrated a successful molten salt reactor, fueled by thorium.

    Unlike the high-pressure water-cooled reactors currently used, the MSR operates at low pressure, so there is no danger of explosion in the event of cooling system failure, such as happened at Fukishima. The MSR presents no hazard of meltdown, as the coolant salt is already molten, and if there is a loss of cooling, the molten salt drains into tanks which are passively cooled and whose configuration prevents the continuation of nuclear reactions.

    The Thorium Energy Alliance is working to raise public awareness of this technology which can give us energy independence, end pollution and carbon emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, and revive our economy. That is our vision for America.
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