<story><title>Norway is building thorium reactor</title><url>http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/norway-ringing-in-thorium-nuclear-new-year-with-westinghouse-at-the-party/6421</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>marvin</author><text>If I am correctly informed (would love to hear from people who are involved in the project), this project is being done in spite of the Norwegian government&apos;s stance on nuclear energy.&lt;p&gt;Thor Energy and its associated researchers have tried to stir up support for thorium reserach for years now, but there has been very little support and large amount of uninformed opposition (&quot;nu-cu-lar is baaaaaad&quot;). A number of physicists, notably Egil Lillestøl at the University of Bergen, have talked to official figures about this for a long time about this without getting any kind of traction.&lt;p&gt;Thorium energy seems to be a very promising candidate for safe, clean and cheap next-generation nuclear power. If these researchers manage to develop something without official support, it would be impressive indeed. That the Norwegian government isn&apos;t willing to support clean energy research is really quite baffling, given that the energy sector is hands-down the largest contributor to the Norwegian economy. And Norway has the world&apos;s second-largest known thorium reserves. For all our supposed good policies, we are still subject to mob rule and completely uninformed detractors.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mtgx</author><text>Wasn&apos;t uranium-based nuclear energy supposed to be very cheap, too, and then it turned out it wasn&apos;t that cheap? I worry the same will happen with thorium.&lt;p&gt;Also how much safer is it? Can it be set-up just a few KM outside a city? Is there any dangerous waste to deposit at all?&lt;p&gt;I do think that if we are to continue research in nuclear energy it should be based on Thorium, rather than uranium, but in the same time, I would much rather have the focus of the energy industry be solar energy right now.&lt;p&gt;I hope countries in the future are powered 70-80% by solar, and 20-30% by other sources like nuclear energy (at least until we figure out how to store solar energy cheaply for night use), than the other way around. And we can only get there fast if we have the industry&apos;s almost complete focus on solar energy, and have them invest billions into researching it and lowering the cost of solar panels.</text></comment>
<story><title>Norway is building thorium reactor</title><url>http://www.smartplanet.com/blog/bulletin/norway-ringing-in-thorium-nuclear-new-year-with-westinghouse-at-the-party/6421</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>marvin</author><text>If I am correctly informed (would love to hear from people who are involved in the project), this project is being done in spite of the Norwegian government&apos;s stance on nuclear energy.&lt;p&gt;Thor Energy and its associated researchers have tried to stir up support for thorium reserach for years now, but there has been very little support and large amount of uninformed opposition (&quot;nu-cu-lar is baaaaaad&quot;). A number of physicists, notably Egil Lillestøl at the University of Bergen, have talked to official figures about this for a long time about this without getting any kind of traction.&lt;p&gt;Thorium energy seems to be a very promising candidate for safe, clean and cheap next-generation nuclear power. If these researchers manage to develop something without official support, it would be impressive indeed. That the Norwegian government isn&apos;t willing to support clean energy research is really quite baffling, given that the energy sector is hands-down the largest contributor to the Norwegian economy. And Norway has the world&apos;s second-largest known thorium reserves. For all our supposed good policies, we are still subject to mob rule and completely uninformed detractors.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>emiliobumachar</author><text>Being cynical, perhaps the fact they&apos;re swimming in oil makes them disintersted as a nation in developing alternative energy.</text></comment>