Comments by "jeppen" (@jesan733) on "Ask Peter Zeihan: Can Thorium Solve the Nuclear Problem?" video.

  1. This is not Peter's expertise. Thorium is an answer if we want it to be. It's proliferation-safe, not because it's completely impossible to make weapons within its fuel cycle, but because it's hard enough so that any would-be nuclear weapons state would stay clear and instead build a dedicated plutonium-producing uranium-based reactor on the side. It does solve the waste problem, as it uses all of the fuel and not just 3.5% (so the volumes are reduced to 1/20-th or less), and it can eat old waste. Also it is abundant enough for us to never run out of fuel. But otoh, ordinary reactor tech is good enough for the foreseeable future, and the current roadblock is overregulation and extreme safety requirements driving costs, which isn't really what thorium solves.
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  2. Tbh I don't think Peter captures it very well. Let me try here: 1. Thorium is proliferation-safe, not because it's completely impossible to make weapons using its fuel cycle, but because it's hard enough so that any would-be nuclear weapons state would stay clear and instead build a dedicated plutonium-producing uranium-based reactor on the side. 2. Thorium does solve the waste problem, as it uses all of the fuel and not just 3.5% (so the volumes are reduced to 1/20-th or less), and it can eat old high-level waste. 3. Also it is abundant enough for us to never run out of fuel. 4. As a spin-off to 3, it's actually abundant enough that no appreciable mining would be needed, making moot the argument that mining for nuclear fuel is an environmental issue. 5. But otoh, ordinary/old reactor tech isn't currently particularly constrained by the above issues that thorium solves. 6. The current roadblock for nuclear is rather overregulation and extreme safety requirements driving costs. 7. Thorium could partially solve this if the regulatory bodies decide that molten salt reactors are inherently meltdown safe (and arguments could be made that they are), and peels away most regulation. This is wishful thinking currently. 8. The reprocessing needed in the thorium fuel cycle is potentially a bit dirty, so this might again make regulatory costs spiral upwards.
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