LOL, this is great. This may be a brilliant idea on the drawing board, but having liquid fluorine be the major liquid in a nuclear reactor is just asking for trouble. I was looking at the website thoriumalliance.org and could not find the block diagram or descriptions of how this works.

If liquid fluorine is released into the plant wouldn’t human beings have a major problem being in the plant to fix it. Fluorine is a highly reactive element, and fluorine poisoning make radiation poisoning look relatively good by comparison. Yes, a plant may have run for however long, but what would happen if a bomb went off in it, or the plant was crashed into by a jet airliner or there was deliberate sabotage?

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So these cylinders just “burn” like a cigarette … a cigarette that will not go out ? The cigarette analogy is ominous but may be prescient.

If these powerplants are of normal size, generating significant heat – did we not learn what happens to nuclear power plants that need continuous cooling and energy inputs in emergencies for them to “shut down” in Japan/Fukushima. In different words – all nuclear plants seem to have been designed so they really cannot be shut down at all.

Is there an answer to this or are these plants just a different tune of don’t worry, be happy – until something goes wrong we did not sufficiently design for? No wonder no one wants to underwrite these things. This is a project for the government or NASA, where the lowest bigger, and profits are not a major consideration. People need to be told the plain facts. But even so – if you cannot flip a switch manually or automatically when a problem is sensed and shut down the reactor so that no inputs are needed – no water, no power and no people then you are just “blowing smoke” as the saying goes – in other peoples faces – carcinogenic smoke.

I am pro-nuclear power, but I am not for whatever shortsighted idiots have been making the design parameters that have got us to the point that the whole world is terrified of nuclear power. Pro-nuclear people want to condescend to people and say it is because the first view of nuclear to the world was a bomb, but that is not true, the important view is the arrogance and incompetence used to make design judgements when money is at stake.

Loud noises cause the fish to jump out of the water and into the air. There are ways to temporarily stun all fish with electricity and they would float to the surface. Such techniques could allow software and optical gear to ID the Asian Carp and fry them.