The recent advances in accelerator technology<http://www6.slac.stanford.edu/news/2013-09-27-accelerator-on-a-chip.aspx>will open a lot of interesting possibilities. Controlled thorium fission is one.
On Tue, Oct 15, 2013 at 12:16 AM, Blaze Spinnaker <[email protected]>wrote: > http://www.caradvice.com.au/132921/the-thorium-powered-car-eight-g > rams-one-million-miles/ > > In reply to Harry Veeder's message of Mon, 15 Aug 2011 12:08:02 -0700 (PDT): > Hi, > [snip] > > > >I found this link on the Cold Fusion Times website. > >What powers the laser that heats the thorium? Is this a parody? > >Harry > > > >http://wardsauto.com/ar/thorium_power_car_110811/"A U.S. company says it is > >getting closer to putting prototype electric cars on the road that will be > >powered by the heavy-metal thorium. > >Thorium is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive rare-earth element > >discovered in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius, who named it > >after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. It is found in small amounts in most > >rocks and soils, where it is about three times more abundant than uranium." > > In order to get that much energy out of thorium, you have to fission it. Now > you > could do that with fast particles directly or by first converting it to U233 > then fissioning it with slow neutrons. Since a laser is employed, and we know > that lasers can be used as particle accelerators, my guess would be that they > intend to accelerate protons with the laser and use them to fission the > Thorium > directly. > > Regards, > > Robin van Spaandonk > http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html > > >
