THORIUM?

But does it make a good poison?

Thorium poised to meet world's energy needs: Commercial applications now available for clean energy
Mia Ousley, November 30, 2006 (EurekAlert.org)
- At a forum held today at the National Press Club, a group of leading nuclear scientists examined the potential of thorium, a substance similar to uranium but environmentally safer and more plentiful, which could help meet the entire world's growing energy needs.

- The forum—sponsored by DBI, a California-based aerospace company that has been conducting secluded research and development on thorium-fueled reactors for the past 30 years—explored the environmental benefits, safety and national security aspects, economic benefits and commercial applications of thorium…
- Emphasizing a critical need for expanding energy sources and the unique requirements to move to a hydrogen economy, DBI has evaluated nuclear power options and has developed an innovative concept to exploit the benefits of a thorium fuel cycle…
- Thorium, which is plentiful in North America, can produce fewer environmental and human health hazards in its fuel production than the conventional uranium fuel cycle. Most significantly, the new technologies being developed take advantage of thorium's energy potential to reduce the volume and toxicity of waste…
- [T]horium fuel cycles produce much less land disruption, chemical and radiological hazards, and chemical toxicity than the conventional uranium fuel cycle…

- The forum also explored the role of thorium in national security…to stop the production of weapons-suitable plutonium and eliminate existing plutonium stockpiles…
- [A] 2000 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)…examined the benefits of thorium over uranium, including fewer problems disposing of highly radioactive and long-lived waste, and fewer stockpiles of plutonium that could be diverted for weapons proliferation…
- The forum concluded with participants urging the federal government to play a more aggressive role in the development of thorium by funding thorium research and helping companies that have commercial applications to bring their research to the marketplace.