

8 grams of thorium could replace gasoline in cars  - ukdm
http://www.geek.com/articles/geek-cetera/8-grams-of-thorium-could-replace-gasoline-in-cars-20110812/

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rdtsc
Sounds like another "just-around-the-corner-invest-now!" alternative fuel
company.

* A lot of wordy rhetoric about "clean" and "green" power, not technical references.

* 200kg engines that generate hundreds of MW of power

* Claims prototypes are coming "very soon" (2014)

* Typical "lone inventor through sheer genius discovers new untapped, almost unlimited source of energy"

* Picture of Obama on the site ("Look govt. is investing in this too, so should you, get ahead of the game!").

<sarcasm> Not bad. I bet some will buy in. There is a profit to be made off of
pedalling "just-around-the-corner" amazing energy breakthrough deals. But in
this case first order of business should be finding a better website designer.
If they are peddaling this for "investors" they need more flash, some
animations, maybe some fake graphs.</sarcasm>

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GiraffeNecktie
Source article is much better:
<http://wardsauto.com/ar/thorium_power_car_110811/>

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Jabbles
I think the biggest hurdle will be containing the thorium so that a head-on
collision between two cars at 100mph each doesn't leak radioactive material
all over the road.

I can't comment on the difficulty of building a nuclear engine weighing 227kg
(I assume he means 250kW), but I would have thought the space industry would
be the first to utilise such a breakthrough, and I'm not aware of the
widespread adoption of those engines over solar panels.

If these challenges are met then such an engine could be a viable alternative
to the batteries in electric cars.

~~~
uvdiv
For an auto engine it is beyond hopeless (economics, safety). This particular
case is a crackpot/scammer with no substance at all.

Very small nuclear-powered engines are possible. There were several launched
on space satellites by the US and USSR, i.e.

[http://www.etec.energy.gov/history/Major-Operations/SNAP-
Ove...](http://www.etec.energy.gov/history/Major-Operations/SNAP-
Overview.html)

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosmos_954>

SNAP weighed under 430 kg for the entire power system (note this is a real
fission reactor, not a radioisotope heat source like many space probes). These
use highly-enriched uranium (weapons grade) to get very small cores.

Nuclear reactors have been proposed for interplanetary probes, such as the
(recently cancelled) Jupiter Icy Moons Orbiter, which would have used a
nuclear reactor powering an ion thruster. It's completely viable.

[http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/jupiter/JIMO_Bac...](http://nssdcftp.gsfc.nasa.gov/miscellaneous/jupiter/JIMO_Background/JIMO.pdf)

~~~
ahi
Also tested for aircraft propulsion.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aircraft_Nuclear_Propulsion>

tl;dr They discovered it was a bad idea.

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p9idf
"Stevens has worked out you’d require a 227kg, 250MW thorium engine in order
to power a typical road car."

250MW is around 333,333 horsepower. A 250kW, 333 horsepower, engine seems more
likely to me.

~~~
rdtsc
A 250MW engine could power a city and its suburbs.

"Keep that foot on the gas, we need lights downtown for another couple of
hours"

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bh42222
Anyone have more information on exactly how this works? Does it mean 200+ Kg
of thorium, only 8 grams of which would be used up during a car's life time?

~~~
astrodust
The engine, turbine, housing and all that weighs over 200kg. The thorium
weighs 8g.

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angdis
Three questions:

1) How much would 8g of Thorium cost? How much would the engine cost? Even
with economies of scale, I can't imagine that it won't be an astronomical
investment.

2) Could enough thorium ever be produced? Can it work on a North American
~1car/person scale?

3) Finally, is this _really_ a good use of the technology? Isn't it better to
just drive less, use public/bike/walking for transportation, live closer to
work, etc?

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thestranger
Unfortunately, the oil companies are too powerful to allow something like this
to succeed. I would be very surprised if anything ever came of this.

~~~
thestranger
I guess being a realist earns you downvotes these days?

See: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Who_Killed_the_Electric_Car%3F>

