[quote=livinincali]
Huh. Oak Ridge had a working experiment LFTR in the 1960’s. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment. In addition there’s at least a few experimental projects going on right now, including the Fuji MSR, the Chinese Thorium MSR Project, and a project in Prague.
LFTR would be a great stop gap measure until working fusion is achieved. Nat Gas could also serve in that role for some time.[/quote]
There is a huge difference ( i.e. many decades) between demonstrating a experimental reactor (or presenting a cool powerpoint at a TED talk) and actually building hundreds of commercial reactors each producing 1000s of MW of electricity all over the world and running them for decades safely, reliably and economically while getting rid of the waste they generate safely.
P.S. : IMHO Running out of U-235 is not the primary problem with the adoption nuclear energy today (which is what Thorium project/others seems to be focused on). Someday that will also be an issue. However more immediately, (a) Making a safe, economic and reliable reactor and (b) disposal of waste in safe and reliable manner is what is hampering atomic energy.
