Thorium is a natural occurring element found on earth, the moon, mars... essentially everywhere. It is a slightly radioactive metal and is about four times more abundant on Earth than uranium. Because of its fertility, it can be used as fuel in a nuclear power plant.
Why is thorium important if we already have uranium-fueled nuclear power plants? A thorium-fueled nuclear reactor generates the same power as a uranium or coal power plant but produces essentially no waste. The thorium power plant would produce much less than 1% of the waste that a uranium plant of equal magnitude produces and, of course, would produce no carbon dioxide. More importantly, while the waste of a uranium power plant is toxic for over 10,000 years, the little waste that is produced in a thorium plant is benign in under 200 years. Even more impressive, the thorium power plant can be used to burn our current stockpile of nuclear waste. And yet, the benefits continue. The thorium power plant cannot "melt down", thorium cannot be used to make nuclear weapons, there is enough thorium in the United States alone to power the country at its current energy level for over 1000 years, and the thorium power plant can be designed to be a plug and play module that could tap right in at the source of a current coal or uranium plant so there would be no need for laying a new grid.
Now, although it sounds like science fiction, the potential of thorium power has already been witnessed. Studies and experiments were conducted from the 1950's until the 70's and the true value of thorium was proven as a superlative energy source in the molten-salt reactor experiment (MSR) between 1964-1975. With all that said, we hear the same question from everyone who hears about thorium for the first time. "It almost sounds too good to be true, why isn't it already in use today?" Surf on if you are one of these people. You'll find that there isn't a good reason...
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