RR Phantom
Location : Wasted Space Job/hobbies : Cayman Islands Actuary
| Subject: Safe nuclear power not a pipedream Mon Jan 07, 2013 7:03 pm | |
| THE Chinese are running away with thorium energy, giving an edge to a global race for the prize of clean, cheap and safe nuclear power. Good luck to them. They may do us all a favour.
Jiang Mianheng, son of former leader Jiang Zemin, is spearheading a project for the Chinese Academy of Sciences with a start-up budget of $US350 million. He has already recruited 140 scientists working full time on thorium power at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics. He will have 750 staff by 2015.
The aim is to break free of the old pressurised-water reactors fuelled by uranium - originally designed for US submarines in the 1950s - in favour of thorium reactors that produce far less toxic waste and cannot blow their tops like Fukushima.
''China is the country to watch,'' said Bryony Worthington, head of Britain's All-Party Parliamentary Group on Thorium Energy, who visited the Shanghai operations recently. Advertisement
''They are really going for it, and have talented researchers. This could lead to a massive break-through.''
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/business/safe-nuclear-power-not-a-pipedream-20130107-2ccqh.html#ixzz2HKzhOrKZ
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