Finland founds mine that could provide energy to the world for 20 million years
IMO
TL;DR:
My opinion:
Thorium boasts several advantages over the conventional nuclear fuel, uranium-235. Thorium can generate more fissile material (uranium-233) than it consumes while fuelling a water cooled or molten salt reactor, and it generates fewer long-lived minor actinides than plutonium fuels. https://www.iaea.org/bulletin/thoriums-long-term-potential-in-nuclear-energy
Right now nuclear is considered a clean energy, without even using thorium.
One of the main problems of a civilization it’s energy, it is and always will be. Any scientist will agree the future of energy is nuclear fusion or like Doctor Octavius says “The power of the sun, in the palm of my hand!”, we are decades away from this major happening. Well while we wait for the commercialization and miniaturization of this technology why not swap to cleaner energy? Heck, even if decades away is a ridiculous optimism by scientists, thorium nuclear reactors could fuel all humanity for millions of years.
This discovery solves the main problem of fossil fuels the scarcity and finity, of course, it will still end, but I think a few million years is a good deadline. The main problem for the implementation of thorium in the future? Yep, you guessed it capitalism and the interests, where would the oil (hey there Middle East), coil (Mr. China?) and gas (Mother Russia) go? A giant loss of profits from major world players would stop the implementation of this technology. Of course is just a matter of time, from the 3 fuels I talked about oil will be the first ending with scientists projecting around 50 years for it to end, gas a little more than 100 years, and coil with no predicted time.
A major energy change is already on the way with the EV and Hydrogen cars, but if you think it’s a solution, it isn’t. Ok the cars themselves are clean, but where did the energy for charging it come from? Ups, from coil and gas burning in a considerable number of countries, and let’s not forget that the battery cells and Hydrogen cells also use rare materials like lithium (Ev’s) or platinum (Hydrogen). The extraction of these rare materials is extremely polluting for the environment speeding the self-destruction of the world as we know it. So thorium can be a good replacement for now for all these problems.
Now let’s be realy realy greedy, so we have a 20 million yeaars deposit of power, forget the millions of years and concentrate this energy in a few hundred thousand years, can you imagine how much power it is? Someone once said “Born too late to explore the Earth, born too early to explore the universe” Why not use this as the first stone to start the space age for humanity?
If we have it let’s use it, don’t let it waste, but of course, while we wait for the holy grail of the energy: nuclear fusion.
So what do you think? Leave your opinion in the comments.