Comments by "David Elliott" (@davidelliott5843) on "Ask Peter Zeihan: Can Thorium Solve the Nuclear Problem?" video.

  1. Regulatory control is hugely important. However European regulators have been actively using regulations to stall progress. Moltex Energy has a self regulating reactor that Babaock were eager to build. It is self regulating, intrinsically safe, cannot overheat, cannot run dry and has extremely low corrosion issues. It literally burns high grade nuclear waste. It can extract 99% of the fissile energy vs just 4% in the not intrinsically safe PWR reactor. Build costs are about the same as combined cycle gas fired plant. Thats ridiculously cheap for any nuke. However Moltex gave up with UK and moved to Canada. They expect to have a reactor making power by 2030. Canada has one of the best nuclear safety records in the world.
    1
  2. Another point. The Moltex is a fast reactor. It can be fuelled with plutonium, natural uranium, spent nuclear fuel or even expired nuke bomb cores. The process to convert the fuel into a salt denatures the stuff. It becomes so expensive to separate you are better off building your own reactor.
    1