Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors
Understanding the truth of Nuclear safety requires moving past the preconceived notions set out through the legacy of fear from the Cold War era and the failure of 1st-generation American solid fuel/carbon-moderated technologies.
Robert Oppenheimer is remembered through history as carrying the burden of having created the most destructive weapon the world has known. Nonetheless the proliferation of the Carbon-moderated Solid fuel U-235 reactor, first developed under Enrico Fermi's program at the University of Chicago, has led to more death and environmental radiation than any implementation of the military uses of Nuclear energy.
It is relieveing to know that the safest forms of nuclear reactors are yet to be built. As this documentary suggests, the Chinese government is rounding the curve on lFTr technology. That said, a safe nuclear process that uses abundant fuel that does not require irradiation and does not require bomb-grade material, that generates enough heat to synthesize petroleum chemicals seems like technology with a promising future or at least the promise of a future.
