this post was submitted on 17 May 2025
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 day ago (1 children)

The US didn't use the technology, because there still too much coal and fossil fuel to burn

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 day ago (3 children)

Or ya know, thorium reactors work by actually decaying into uranium-232, then we’re back to the waste issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 hours ago

and thorium is much more radioactive than uranium.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 20 hours ago

Except for the fact that you can use the Uranium 233 as fuel itself, and you can't make weaponizable plutonium out of it. Sure you've still got the waste problem, but the thorium reactor produces less waste than an equivalent uranium reactor.

The whole reason it was never developed was because uranium had been developed for the use of nuclear weapons to begin with, so they already had all that work done and then they segued that into power production. They would have to do a lot of research and development, which costs money that nobody wanted to spend, for a program with no military purpose and therefore the government cared a lot less about it. Because we live in fucking Post World War 2 America, and if the military budget can't be tapped for it then the government can't be bothered.

That said, the petroleum industry is probably more responsible. They sure fought tooth and claw against the development of renewables for decades on end. Gawd forbid the rich assholes at the top have one fewer million dollars they'll never be able to spend in their bank accounts.

As usual, greed and power are making things worse for everybody. But hey you go ahead and believe it's because the radioactive waste is the problem.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 23 hours ago

Okay, but how big is the issue normalised to MWh produced?

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Imagine how much more efficient nuclear power would be if we didn't let our nuclear nightmares take over and have us stop or severely restrict it...

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

it wasnt shelved tho I bought stocks related to thorium years ago because its been known the goal is to use it and reactors being made are going to use it, not really effective since they stockpiled already and dont need to mine more