Future fuel: thorium pellets (Image: Pallava Bagla/Corbis)
Editorial: Cut nuclear power’s umbilical cord to the military
“IT IS not difficult to conceive of an entire planet powered by thorium,” wrote Kirk Sorensen on his blog in 2006. Some would contest this bold claim, but given the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, the energy source Sorensen advocates has been thrust into the spotlight.
Sorenson and others propose building reactors that use a naturally occurring element called thorium as the main starting material, instead of uranium or plutonium. Though the technology is far from…
