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Thorium


jerpy

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Ok LOL just read through one of Riggers original posts and that mentions China and India having justifiable economic reasons for looking at thorium

 

+ Wonders if Riggers has checked out - seems to tick a large number of boxes - except it does NOT seem to be listed - oh well

 

Thanks for added links, bben doing lots of scouring around on both Thorium and rare earths, but only Lightbridge has appealed. Which I trade tranches in and out of my origianl stake and so far doing ok. Highly volatile though for a novice chartist. Expect technical traders could have done better than myself.

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Thanks for added links, bben doing lots of scouring around on both Thorium and rare earths, but only Lightbridge has appealed. Which I trade tranches in and out of my origianl stake and so far doing ok. Highly volatile though for a novice chartist. Expect technical traders could have done better than myself.

 

Cheers. It seems that if the Chinese & Indians will be first movers for Thorium, then investment oppo's = will be very limited for us small time western investors

 

Maybe a mining play with lots of resource would be a possible but very Unguaranteed way in.

 

+ Will have a think on Lightbridge or maybe a specialist sector fund - a specialist fund - the to do list gets longer...

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  • 1 month later...
Links taken from comments at bottom of article which are kinda interesting in themselves, apologies if these have been posted already.

 

http://www.americanscientist.org/issues/fe...horium-reactors

 

Studying odd articles you can sometimes realise how significant some papers are. That Robert Hargreaves paper is copyright protected so will not post the full pdf. But it's contained on The Energy from Thorium website here

 

http://www.energyfromthorium.com/forum/vie...?f=7&t=2429

 

Note the comment on Prospects

What kind of national effort will be required to launch a thorium era? We are watching a rehearsal in the latter half of 2010 with the unfolding of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) flagship $5 billion Next Generation Nuclear Plant (NGNP) project....

 

Following a review by the DOE’s Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee, Secretary Chu will announce in January 2011 whether one of the projects will be funded to completion, with the goal of becoming operational in 2021.......

 

The NGNP project is not the answer. There is little prospect that it can gear up on anything close to the timescale needed to replace coal and gas electricity generation within a generation or two. Yet its momentum may crowd out other research avenues, just as alternative nuclear technologies starved support of Alvin Weinberg’s Molten Salt Reactor Project.

 

We could be left asking, What if? Or we can take a close look at thorium as we rethink how we will produce the power consumed by the next generation.

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Interesting about Thorium Energy, Inc

 

 

However, which REE mining stock is the best way to play Thorium?

 

(While I know Thorium is usually an un-used byproduct in REE mining, does one location (miner) tend to have more Thorium by-products than another?)

 

I have my eye on the following REE miner...

 

- Lynas Corp (LYSCF.PK )

- Molycorp Minerals (MCP.AX)

-Great Western Minerals Group (GWG.V)

-QUANTUM RARE EARTH (QREDF.PK)

-Greenland Minerals and Energy (GDLNF.PK)

-HUDSON RESOURCES INC (HUDRF.PK )

- TASMAN METALS (TASXF.PK )

 

*** The heavy REEs

- UCORE RARE METALS (UURAF.PK )

-Avalon Rare Metals (AVARF.PK )

- Alkane Resources (ALK.AX)

- Medallion Resources ( MLLOF.PK)

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  • 3 months later...

Safe nuclear does exist, and China is leading the way with thorium

 

The metal has its own “issues” but no thorium reactor could easily spin out of control in the manner of Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or now Fukushima.

 

Norway’s Aker Solution has bought Professor Rubbia’s patent. It had hoped to build the first sub-critical reactor in the UK, but seems to be giving up on Britain and locking up a deal to build it in China instead, where minds and wallets are more open.

 

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/8393984/Safe-nuclear-does-exist-and-China-is-leading-the-way-with-thorium.html

 

P.S from A.E.P This is my last column for a while. I am withdrawing to the Mayan uplands.

:o:unsure:

 

Did take note of some of the responses to enlighten others provided by Robert Hargreaves

 

The liquid fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) combines the advantages of two key technologies: (1) thorium as fuel, and (2) fuel in liquid form, rather than more fragile fuel rods. The LFTR can produce energy cheaper than from coal -- a way to check CO2 emissions from burning fossile fuels -- and also improve the prosperity of the energy-starved developing world. For more on the social benefits and technology of LFTR, please see

http://rethinkingnuclearpower.... and

http://energyfromthorium.com

 

And Kirk Sorensen

Thorium is a byproduct of rare-earth mining operations anyway. There won't be any special effort to mine for thorium. The miners will be looking for neodymium and samarium and be happy to sell you the thorium they find along the way....

 

His quotes are very passionate in defence to some of the cynicaal questioning, but this is all he is asking really

 

The liquid-fluoride thorium reactor doesn't need an accelerator to unlock the potential of thorium, and it can be done for many hundreds of millions of dollars less than the accelerator-driven option. I urge interested parties to learn more about the LFTR technology.

 

 

 

Oh and for the traders like myself "Thorium mining isn't going to make anyone any money. Rare-earth mining is, and thorium will be a byproduct of that activity. The money is to be made in the machine that will convert currently worthless thorium into energy: the liquid-fluoride thorium reactor". Now which company could do that :rolleyes:

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<b>Lightbridge Comments on Text of Senate Bill S.3060: Thorium Energy Security Act of 2010</b>

 

"We applaud the efforts of Senators Hatch and Reid in formally introducing this bill to the Senate," said Seth Grae, Lightbridge (Nasdaq: LTBR) CEO. "This is a significant milestone for the nuclear industry and offers the hope that alternative nuclear fuels will be considered for new and existing reactors as global power demand continues to require fresh thinking."

 

 

 

"The introduction of this important legislation by Senators Hatch and Reid, which will advance the cause of peaceful nuclear energy in the context of nuclear non-proliferation, is an appropriate recognition of the 40th anniversary of the entry into force of the NPT," said Ambassador Thomas Graham, Jr., Lightbridge Corporation Executive Chairman of the Board. Speaking as the former Special Representative of the President of the United States for Arms Control, Non-Proliferation, and Disarmament and leader of the U.S. delegation to the international conference that successfully achieved the permanent extension of the NPT, Graham continued, "the legislation introduced by Senators Hatch and Reid is a major step forward for the industry and validation for the thorium-based nuclear fuel technology being developed by Lightbridge."

 

 

 

<a href="http://www.streetinsider.com/Earnings/Lightbridge+Comments+on+Text+of+Senate+Bill+S.3060:+Thorium+Energy+Security+Act+of+2010/5422218.html" target="_blank">http://www.streetinsider.com/Earnings/Ligh...10/5422218.html</a>

 

 

Merryn Somerset Webb recommended in this weeks FT to watch Lightbridge based on its clean nuclear solution etc. etc.

She's usually good, and clear was looking at this thread last week :P

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Merryn Somerset Webb recommended in this weeks FT to watch Lightbridge based on its clean nuclear solution etc. etc.

She's usually good, and clear was looking at this thread last week :P

:lol:

 

The whole concept does interest me and i've thought it's an answer to energy needs for a little while now, but needs some serious money throwing at it and political will. The likes of Kirk on the E.F.T site are the real inspiration.

 

Riggers is just an avid follower.

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  • 4 weeks later...

Just having a browse of the EFT site and happened to see something interesting that caught my eye links to - OTEC - now that is a new one on me ! Can be combined with de salination - do like the idea of combo power and de-sal plants. Could also be land based, see wiki

 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20026836.000-plumbing-the-oceans-could-bring-limitless-clean-energy.html/

FOR a company whose business is rocket science Lockheed Martin has been paying unusual attention to plumbing of late. The aerospace giant has kept its engineers occupied for the past 12 months poring over designs for what amounts to a very long fibreglass pipe.

 

It is, of course, no ordinary pipe but an integral part of the technology behind Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion (OTEC), a clean, renewable energy source that has the potential to free many economies from their dependence on oil.

 

"This has the potential to become the biggest source of renewable energy in the world," says Robert Cohen, who headed the US federal ocean thermal energy programme in the early 1970s.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocean_thermal_energy_conversion

 

Lockheed Martin might be more accessible as an investment than Thorium. But maybe this is just another example of one of a number of potential highly beneficiary technologies that if (or when) cracked will greatly benefit mankind........ Its summertime, am felling good, must be a crash around the corner :D

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

:lol:

 

The whole concept does interest me and i've thought it's an answer to energy needs for a little while now, but needs some serious money throwing at it and political will. The likes of Kirk on the E.F.T site are the real inspiration.

 

Riggers is just an avid follower.

 

A very good interview with Kirk this week on FSN. Laid out the Thorium case quite succinctly, would expect a lot more people to be aware of it now. Of all the various possible "silver bullets" for energy, Thorium does look the best,.

 

Thorium advocate Kirk Sorensen explains how thorium reactors can change the world through the use of a safer, cleaner and more available energy source than uranium.

 

http://www.financialsense.com/financial-sense-newshour

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A very good interview with Kirk this week on FSN. Laid out the Thorium case quite succinctly, would expect a lot more people to be aware of it now.

 

Kirk does highlight some obvious points even in the Nuclear community there is a lack of knowledge, he highlights the U.S lack of energy planning and the potencial for a long term solution at a lower cost.

 

You would think one day there will be a reaction (of a positive sort) :rolleyes:

 

Good interview

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Amazing to hear Kirk say there are many nuclear engineers who dont know about Thorium. Maybe there are so many possible alternatives they dont know where to turn. A couple more links follow.

 

cold FUSION not fission wanted.

 

Hud Uni near you Riggers ? Contact details are on this site also !

 

 

http://www2.hud.ac.u...php?staffid=461

 

iii) The design and evaluation of a thorium-based energy amplifier, or accelerator driven sub-critical reactor (ADSR) for energy generation. ADSR systems may provide a safer and cheaper alternative to conventional nuclear power. Unlike conventional nuclear reactors which have an enriched uranium, or plutonium, core to sustain a chain reaction, ADSRs are designed to have insufficient neutrons to become critical. The additional neutrons that are needed to maintain the fission process are provided by spallation, whereby approximately 10% of the electrical power from the ADSR is used to accelerate protons to high energies, the protons then collide with heavy metal targets within the reactor core to spall (or chip off) neutrons. If the accelerator is switched off the fission processes stop. Additional advantages of the ADSR system are that it uses thorium, which is four times more plentiful than uranium, as fuel; it doesn't produce plutonium and therefore minimises the risk of proliferation; it can burn plutonium, rendering it safe by reducing the half life of the radiotoxic waste from thousands to hundreds of years. This work is being carried out in collaboration with Professor Roger Barlow at the University of Manchester under a £160K EPSRC grant

 

http://nextbigfuture...nd-nuclear.html

some uk scientists did something..

 

http://peswiki.com/index.php/Radio

interesting looking website - thrium stuff dates back to 2009 but other stuff looks interesting so thought Id bookmark it here

+ various energy podcasts/radio /video

 

Is there a link to Kirk @ Google/TED talks on this thread - if not ?

 

2011 = Kirk Sorensen discuss "Thorium" at TEDxYYC 2011.

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxYYC-Kirk-Sorensen-Thorium;search:tag:%22science%22

2009 =

http://toxicwastefacts.com/toxicwaste/energy-from-thorium-a-nuclear-waste-burning-liquid-salt-thorium-reactor-2/

 

Riggers any plays/thoughts/possibles in this sector ?

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Hud Uni near you Riggers ? Contact details are on this site also !

 

 

 

Riggers any plays/thoughts/possibles in this sector ?

 

Well since it is north of the M25 you might consider it near me! Sorry though, bit further up the grim North than the Midlands :lol:

 

Thanks for all the links, my only trading play is Lightbridge. As for possibilities, well you just wonder on the conspiracy theories whether we get the full picture of this cold fusion stuff. Vested interests and all that, could see many a energy play disappear if ever the technology worked.

 

Who knows, plenty dismiss Thorium, personally keeping an open mind and it is an interesting concept to watch for me.

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Gets a bit worrying when the D.M starts to pick up the story :unsure:

 

Quotes Professor Bob Cywinski...right now were at the leading edge of this technology. If were prepared to make the necessary investment, well not only reinvigorate our own nuclear industry, but exploit a lucrative export market which could be worth many billions of pounds, creating thousands of jobs.....thanks to funding from the Research Councils UK Basic Technology Programme, weve taken the first, critical step to making this dream a reality constructing an incredibly hi-tech, cutting-edge machine with a surprisingly ordinary name: Emma......

 

.......She is the worlds first non- scaling, fixed-field, alternating-gradient (NS-FFAG) accelerator. In laymans terms, says Bliss, this means she is a pocket-sized machine, the prototype of a new generation that will be significantly smaller and cheaper than its predecessors.

 

Last year, ThorEA published a report, Towards An Alternative Nuclear Future, which concluded it should be possible to build the first 600MW power plant fuelled by thorium with three attached pocket-sized NS-FFAG accelerators within 15 years, at a cost of about £2 billion making it highly competitive in relation to fossil-fuel or conventional nuclear alternatives.....

 

BUT the Governments Chief Scientific Adviser, Sir John Beddington, concluded that thorium research shouldnt be a priority, as development of the appropriate technology would appear to be some way into the future.In a letter to Cywinski, he admitted the science behind thorium reactors was well based, and said the main reason he couldnt recommend government support was because there had never been research on how to reprocess thorium fuel on an industrial scale.

 

:blink: says Cywinski, "not only would thorium plants produce far less waste, but their fuel which would only need to be refreshed every ten years, as opposed to 18 months in a conventional nuclear reactor wouldnt need to be reprocessed at all".

 

Its construction hasnt yet been funded, but the next crucial milestone on the road to thorium power, a powerful proton NS-FFAG accelerator, isnt merely some remote theoretical possibility. The same group of scientists that designed and built Emma have already come up with detailed plans for her successor, Pamela, the Particle Accelerator for Medical Applications. As her name suggests, Pamela would have an immediate practical use in a field far removed from that of power generation: cancer treatment.

 

is Pamela a pipe dream, an expensive gamble that cant be justified at a time of austerity? Pamela can be built for an overall cost of £10-15 million, and would take about five years. And that would be a crucial stepping stone towards a thorium power station. It wouldnt be cheap. But it would be highly competitive. says Professor Ken Peach, of Oxford Universitys Particle Therapy Cancer Research Institute.

 

Now that Emma has proved we can make an NS-FFAG accelerator and get a beam, I think theres a genuine opportunity here for the UK to gain a vital technological lead. But if we dont put the money in, someone else will.

Already, Belgian scientists, backed by more than £300 million of government funding, are developing a thorium reactor aimed primarily at deactivating old nuclear waste. Their colleagues in China and India which has copious thorium deposits are taking a strong interest

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-2001548/Electron-Model-Many-Applications-Technology-save-world.html

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Oh and for the traders like myself "Thorium mining isn't going to make anyone any money. Rare-earth mining is, and thorium will be a byproduct of that activity. The money is to be made in the machine that will convert currently worthless thorium into energy: the liquid-fluoride thorium reactor". Now which company could do that :rolleyes:

It sounds like Molycorp and Lightbridge could give people some exposure.

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It sounds like Molycorp and Lightbridge could give people some exposure.

 

The investor success on Molycorp though rather depends on how R.E prices hold up i.m.o

 

Slightly o/t Thorium but I don't know whether you track prices Gf, the only one I regularly look at it Antimony, which has weakened of late. I wonder if the Chineese will switch the taps back on if their domestic demand weakens, thus once again weaken other markets?

 

Anyway you might be interested in this, quite a good resume of the situation to a casual observer

 

http://features.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2011/11/18/molycorps-1-billion-rare-earth-gamble/

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Thanks.

 

I wonder if the Chineese will switch the taps back on if their domestic demand weakens, thus once again weaken other markets?

It's quite a risk, especially if the Chang/Chanos collapse finally comes along.

 

 

Also an interesting detail, which could help if China tried to drive them out of business once more:

 

Meanwhile, Congress has taken up the issue of China's rare-earth monopoly. No fewer than nine bills that would support the resurgence of the U.S. rare-earth industry are pending or awaiting introduction.
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  • 5 months later...

The Metro free paper - www.ukmetro.co.uk may sometime soon with luck be running a piece on Thorium I hope. Ooh I sound like Ive been to one of the fringe's mind bending threads :lol: ... which I havent.

 

Before or after the free ad's LDB :lol:

 

Mind bending :blink: Hmmm I'll pass on looking them up myself than too :rolleyes:

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  • 5 months later...

Bump with one to keep an eye on maybe? http://flibe-energy.com/

 

"

Flibe Energy is a new company that will develop small modular reactors based on liquid-fluoride thorium reactor (LFTR) technology. Liquid-fluoride reactors operate at high temperature but not at high pressure because they use a chemically stable medium as the fuel and the coolant, making them much safer to operate than conventional reactors. Thorium is the only abundant nuclear fuel that can be efficiently utilized in a thermal-spectrum reactor and is uniquely chemically suited for use in a fluoride reactor.

Currently there are many remote sites where electrical power is generated by diesel fuel that is transported over great distances and over challenging or hostile terrain. A small modular power source has the potential to reduce the costs, hazards and vulnerability of power supply-lines, saving money and even lives.

 

Flibe Energy anticipates strategic collaboration with qualified nuclear equipment manufacturers to hasten the development and construction of the small mobile LFTRs that can be used in remote installations"

 

From bottom of intro page "Flibe Energy is assembling and will soon introduce a panel of energy industry and political advisers from around the globe to introduce Flibe Energy and LFTR technology to key strategic research and technology partners and decision makers in their respective markets".

 

"Flibe Energy is assembling and will soon introduce a panel of energy industry and political advisers from around the globe to introduce Flibe Energy and LFTR technology to key strategic research and technology partners and decision makers in their respective markets".

 

 

 

Note under investors section "Flibe Energy is a private company and is not publicly listed." Forever one wonders?

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  • 2 months later...

Riggers - you know Flibe is set up by the very same Kirk referenced earlier in this thread right!!

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flibe_Energy#Kirk_Sorensen

 

- Remember Kirk saying he was setting up a company to fabricate bits for the forthcoming Thorium age, sounds like he has progressed a but beyond that.

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