energy research in 20 minutes with the benji

wondering how much coal was actually left to be used, the benji googled it -- it's not clear -- one estimate is 155 years worth... depends on various factors like cost to extract more difficult to reach coal, unfeasible coal (coal under built cities, etc)...

for a certainty china is going coal crazy like a horny teenager that cannot stop jerking off, i had some stats on my screen recently but now do not have them but you can find them for yourself, from memory in 20 years they will add on more coal consumption than japan currently uses now

then you start reading about natural gas, maybe 100 years if the rate of usage isn't stepped up... peak oil, maybe another 100 or 200 years worth... shale gas, apparently not that great

the only thing you end up finding that is meant to be a real game-changer is thorium, this is only 20 minutes of research with the benji, so benji won't pretend to be an expert on it -- but here's an impressive piece of info: thorium is commonly found in the earth's crust in one part per 100,000 --- through a scientific procedure it can fairly easily be turned into uranium by bombarding it with a neutron and suchlike -- the uranium is then used to run nuclear reactors which produce electricity --- obviously nuclear reactors can be placed far from tidal waves, earthquake-seismic areas and suchlike.... it seems like a real solution -- but again, that was only 20 minutes of research that dug that up,

read about it here:

http://energyfromthorium.com/essay3rs/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium

However, unlike uranium-based breeder reactors, thorium requires irradiation and reprocessing before the above-noted advantages of thorium-232 can be realized, which makes thorium fuels initially more expensive than uranium fuels.[14] But experts note that "the second thorium reactor may activate a third thorium reactor. This could continue in a chain of reactors for a millennium if we so choose." They add that because of thorium's abundance, it will not be exhausted in 1,000 years.[23]

The Thorium Energy Alliance (TEA), an educational advocacy organization, emphasizes that "there is enough thorium in the United States alone to power the country at its current energy level for over 1,000 years."[24]

Thorium is found in small amounts in most rocks and soils; it is three times more abundant than tin in the Earth's crust and is about as common as lead.

The German THTR-300 was the first commercial power station powered almost entirely with Thorium. India's 300 MWe AHWR CANDU type reactor will begin construction in 2011. The design envisages a start up with reactor grade plutonium which will breed U-233 from Th-232.After that the input will only be thorium for the rest of the reactor's design life.


At present it is believed that India has disproportionately more Thorium than most countries, Australia, America and others are said to have alot of it. It is still a virgin topic.