THORIUM ENERGY ALLIANCE

What Is Thorium?

Thorium is a natural occurring element found on earth, the moon, mars... essentially everywhere. It is a slightly radioactive metal and is about four times more abundant on Earth than uranium. Because of its fertility, it can be used as fuel in a nuclear power plant.
Why is thorium important if we already have uranium-fueled nuclear power plants? A thorium-fueled nuclear reactor generates the same power as a uranium or coal power plant but produces essentially no waste. The thorium power plant would produce much less than 1% of the waste that a uranium plant of equal magnitude produces and, of course, would produce no carbon dioxide. More importantly, while the waste of a uranium power plant is toxic for over 10,000 years, the little waste that is produced in a thorium plant is benign in under 200 years. Even more impressive, the thorium power plant can be used to burn our current stockpile of nuclear waste. And yet, the benefits continue. The thorium power plant cannot "melt down", thorium cannot be used to make nuclear weapons, there is enough thorium in the United States alone to power the country at its current energy level for over 1000 years, and the thorium power plant can be designed to be a plug and play module that could tap right in at the source of a current coal or uranium plant so there would be no need for laying a new grid.
Now, although it sounds like science fiction, the potential of thorium power has already been witnessed. Studies and experiments were conducted from the 1950's until the 70's and the true value of thorium was proven as a superlative energy source in the molten-salt reactor experiment (MSR) between 1964-1975. With all that said, we hear the same question from everyone who hears about thorium for the first time. "It almost sounds too good to be true, why isn't it already in use today?" Surf on if you are one of these people. You'll find that there isn't a good reason.

With the support of Senator Bond, Jim Kennedy visits with the Brazilian Ministry of Trade and Natural Resources to discuss the development of a "Consortia Rare Earth Refinery".

Many of our members have been writing letters to our Senators, Congressmen, the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and even University Presidents asking that they consider the benefits and needs for establishing a thorium economy. We ask that you do the same. Here you can see an example of a letter that Dr. Cannara addressed to the AAAS and the White House. Similarly, some of our members are turning to new forms of media to promote change. Bryan Hallez, and fellow students at the University of Cincinnati, posted this video on youtube and built the website thorium.mine.nu to promote the cause. We encourage everyone to help inform the world about thorium.