Imagine an element that can power a car for a hundred years without refueling. Or can power an entire town without having to use electricity. That’s exactly what Thorium, named for THOR the Scandinavian God of War can potentially do and become. Back in 2009 Cadillac came up with their new version of a non-fuel vehicle, the World Thorium Concept and most people didn’t think anything of it, just kind of brushed it off, with some like Top Gear even poking fun at it calling it the Cadillac WTF.
One company however paid really close attention to this new idea and is leading the charge to have Thorium technology be used in everyday society. That was the Connecticut based Laser Power Systems (LPS). According to their website, “Imagine a NEW power generation systems with UNLIMITED POWER that is emissions free, and totally green. System sizes from 5 Kw to Megawatts that are cheap to build, safe to operate and can be used to power homes, business, transportation, cars, trucks, ships, military equipment, even planes and spacecraft. Thorium is the best alternative to oil, gas, coal and conventional Nuclear power plants and is the replacement technology internal combustion engines. The amount of free energy contained in thorium fuel is 20 million times the amount of free energy contained in a similar mass of chemical fuel such as coal, making thorium an ideal source of energy.”
Dr. Charles Stevens, the CEO of Laser Power Systems, told Mashable that thorium engines won’t be in cars anytime soon. “Cars are not our primary interest,” Stevens said. “The automakers don’t want to buy them.” He said too much of the automobile industry is focused on making money off of gas engines, and it will take at least a couple decades for thorium technology to be used enough in other industries that vehicle manufacturers will begin to consider revamping the way they think about engines. “We’re building this to power the rest of the world,” Stevens said. He believes a thorium turbine about the size of an air conditioning unit could more provide cheap power for whole restaurants, hotels, office buildings, even small towns in areas of the world without electricity. At some point, thorium could power individual homes.
A Nobel Peace prize winning physicist Carlo Rubbia expressed his view and positive opinion on Thorium Energy saving that thorium has “absolute pre-eminence” over all fuels including uranium as well as fossil fuels. He said it must become a staple of nuclear because it leaves less long-lived waste than uranium, is far more plentiful, is resistant to weapons proliferation and has a much higher energy content so that reactors will require less of it.
So in all, it’s safer, less wasteful, and can ultimately become cheaper over time as with all technologies. Imagine powering your home with not only solar energy, but nuclear energy and not having a bomb like eerie feeling while watching TV. That’s what Thorium can potentially be, not soon, not during our generations. But if needed it will happen, and when needed will be in demand.
