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Development & Aid

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  • TalleyrandTalleyrand Registered User regular
    edited April 2010
    Emissary42 wrote: »
    I seem to recall fission using thorium as the fuel source seems quite promising - mainly in that it's really safe, you can't use it to make weapons, and thorium is very common. I'm willing to bet that's going to be what pops up in the years before fusion really hits mainstream.

    Solar (specifically orbital/space solar) will probably be developed for military purposes though; setting up a microwave receiver for a base is fairly trivial compared to shipping an equivalent amount of fuel/moving portable nuclear plants around [on land].

    Basically fission breeders or thorium reactors are probably where most people think fusion is as far as realistic. Fusion might maybe someday be a decade away from a test plant in 30 years. Breeders and thorium reactors that can be operated economically are probably 20 years off.

    From what I've heard part of the problem is a lack of nuclear engineers who work with thorium. We haven't really looked at it since the 50's and we decided to go with uranium instead because you can make bombs out of it.

    I've also heard that India is exporting thorium technology to Iran as a substitute for uranium powered plants which sounds like a good idea to me.

    Something that hasn't been mentioned yet is the problem with foreign bribery. I don't know too much about it but I do know these guys are starting a program that's trying to fight global corruption. Apparently a lot of developing countries have been wasting their resources by allowing companies from 1st war countries bribe them into building useless and expensive projects all in the name of profit. I'd like to look more into this since I've rarely heard people talking about it.

    Talleyrand on
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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