Why making energy from dirt might save the world | Rusty Towell | TEDxACU 

Great talk Rusty! I really liked how you used the big cube and the cans to help people understand the energy density of thorium in a LFTR.

He also should tell people that with those reactors they can crack the carbonic acid from the oceans to lower the acidity of the oceans and remove co2 from it as well and make carbon neutral fuel to.

Westinghouse produced the first modern AC power generator and distribution system. His AC generator was designed by Telsa.

Great talk Rusty. We absolutely need to start building these as quickly as possible. We need a Kennedy style "Moon Race" equivalent for Thorium.

It is exceedingly sad that this technology, the Liquid Floride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), which was understood and developed in Government Labs to the point of being able to begin building power plants, was dropped in the US in 1969. It produces far less radioactive waste than our current reactors, produces no byproducts useful for the production of Nuclear weapons, uses a reactor design that safe even if everyone running it wanders away, cost far less per energy therm to produce than any other source of energy, requires no more security than any other type of power plant. The main expendable is Thorium which is in plentiful supply in every country in the world. The cost of this energy is affordable even for the poorest person in extreme poverty. This type of nuclear plant would be safe for any country, even Iran, to own and operate. The short-sighted reason for dropping the technology at the time was the nuclear arms race. LFTR provided insignificant military weapons potential, only enormous economic and ecological advantages. With LFTR made available to the world, nuclear reactors with weapons potential would not be needed for power and nuclear proliferation could have been stopped. Better yet, Russian control over uranium supplies would be worth almost nothing except for weapons because Thorium is plentiful in common dirt. Need for Uranium would plummet and other sources, not controlled by the Russians, could easily meet any defense need. We need crash programs to make LFTR available to the world, eliminating fuels producing Carbon Dioxide, also upsetting the Russian and Arab strangle-holds over sources of oil, gas, and coal. Thinking strategically this would weaken a lot of the bad nation-states as well as serve humanitarian and ecological imperatives. Why have we sat doing nothing for 50 years?

The main thing is that the status quo energy money and the human desire to control their fellow person are formidable obstacles to achieve this cheap liberating solution to humanity's energy needs.

He should also include Fuel for nuclear batteries for NASA can be harvested from the waste stream of LFTR's, Also Neodymium can be harvested for magnets.

Great talk. I appreciate your mention of looking at the whole life cycle of energy production including building the parts that produce the energy. I'm curious now about the life cycle of the parts of a LFTR. Maybe a topic for a follow up video. Sodium Fluoride, is hazardous and can't be allowed to leak. Would it be 100.0% recycled in the LFTR plant's process?

Very well put together. Perfect for the layman.

Rusty, That was a great talk. I have been seeing more information on LFTR's and I can see that here is a safe source of energy for the world. Keep up the great research work.

ONE OF THE BEST EXPLANATIONS YOU'RE GOING TO FIND ON THE BENEFITS OF THORIUM AND HOW IT WORKS. WELL DONE.

I like your presentation. I hope the world can get their priorities straight asap just like you. A few good initiatives world-wide I hear to build a few of these. India I hear is developing this tech. I would love this to be a solution to our energy needs until fusion (maybe) comes and finally brings an end to worrying about all future energy needs. You'd get my vote to develop this asap.

You could start a business with this to provide alternative power at a low cost, drive out competitors such as the inefficient fossil/renewable fuels with your super low prices and humanitarian vision

Electricity is the sole energy source we need every day. It's only achieved by 2 ways, either by electromagnetic induction process or by photoelectric process. We need to find the third way soon and the one who finds it first, is gonna be the richest and the most famous person ever!!

and we don't have in production now why? backyard reactors for each neighborhood off the grid ...what am I missing?

How much energy and chemicals does it take to process the thorium out of that quantity of soil, and to simply mine that much soil in the first place? Then, if it is true that that amount of soil can provide energy for a person for their entire life, we have 7 billion people on the earth, 7 billion cubic yards of soil is a staggering amount.

I REALLY want to be on Kirk and Rusty's team... Can I put a single neighborhood unit in my backyard? Thanks for all you do to put the Thorium and LFTR info out there.

The grid itself adds 15 c/kwh due to wind and solar. If the grid is simplified with only nuclear/coal/combined power (low cost base load power at

I think the biggest obstacle you face is the "Too good to be true" viewpoint, so may I make a suggestion that you have one of those well presented TV-debate style debates hosted at a top University with perhaps a scientist who is anti-Thorium (are there any?) and perhaps a political advisor in the energy business - someone with gravitas. Your ideas need to be publicly tested and debated in order to gain traction, credibility and visibility. I think you might do well to get some decent PR guru involved and use social media to do something viral? Good luck

best simple examples and explanation of Thorium uses for most people can understand.

Blow away. Excellent presentation. Thank you.

congratulations Rusty. I have watch loads of these videos and you are the first to say the reason they chose the other reactors was to make bombs. Everyone else bar none has skirted around that. Well done that man. :)

Great talk, all of you that have watched this should share this on social media. We can change the world!

when?

His voice is very similar to Alan Alda's. I think it was Popular Science that ran a story about Thorium reactors back in the seventies or early eighties. I believe the main problem they figured, was that they didn't think the valves and pumps etc would not last long in that environment.

Question: could this be scaled down to the size of say an internal combustion engine? I think this is what we need for running automobiles, like if my understanding is correct, one M&M of thoruim could run a automobile for its entire life. Even better if the lftr was transfable, then you could just get a new chassis and transfer the reactor into that and never have to buy an power train again. My only concern would be where and how big would the storage of the waste be? This is quite interesting considering the way the world is fighting over resources for energy, especially oil. Any rebuttals or comments would be great. Thanks

Dr Nikola Tesla thought of this problem more than 100 years ago.

This talk has a fantastic point, and I fully believe that it should be more thoroughly explored now. That said, the presentation has several issues with misleading comparisons and similar issues.

Is it possible for Ted organisations to ensure the description cites all speakers commercial or employer / employee interests in the industry being advocated. For example, does the speaker receive income or have a financial interest in a company?

Really like your talk. First time hearing about Thorium but it sounds cool (only 17 years old), if it is true (not that I am saying it is false but it is TOO GREAT TO BE REAL) I believe it will save a lot of humans :)

Isn't molten salt corrosive? Doesn't it mean radioactive parts could be exposed causing increased chances of radiation leakage? Maybe the US government looked into this and have decided not to use it because replace reactor parts in middle sea wouldn't be achieveable.

What a great talk. I could listen to him talk about this for hours. He is right about the renewable energy debacle. Wind power is the most expensive power on the planet. Spain practically train wrecked their economy with it. Germany has energy poverty because they tried running off of wind and solar.

Great conversation! I hope people are listening! You need to share with college students because they are the future!

This is the umpteenth video I saw about Thorium. Anyone know where we are with this technology?

All I can say is; fantastic! Many thanks Rusty for the presentation. I sincerely hope that the people of the Earth wake up and take back life as free-thinking fantastic individuals - and not in the constant slavery of economic princes. If we want to be afraid of this Earth, this type of intelligence should also apply. All the economic princes who now rule the world should spend all their money and influence on cleaning up the earth, its air and water. *It is the combination that constitutes the real breakthrough*

This talk made me really sad.. It made me realize that the reason we might fail in our fight against global problems is not that we are not smart enough or have the technology, its that we are just too damn greedy. This is just one of the great ideas that could potentially bring a lot of good to the world. The thing is that if people with money don't see profit in it, they won't invest in it, and so it is hard for a project like that to start. On the other hand, if they do see profit in it, they buy it, invest in it and when its working, they just charge the same for the energy as before, not helping the world much, just grabbing more money for themselves. I felt like governments would step up to the task, but it seems that they are fundamentally the same, and the public just doesn't seem to care enough to really do something fast enough.. I don't know.. i might just have a bad day and things aren't that grim, but i got a really bad feeling about this

HOW CAN WE SUPPORT YOUR EFFORTS THX GOD BLESS ANGELA

Where is Dr. Rusty Towell now in 2020?

The visuals are outstanding.

You don't have to use pv panels for solar. Already in the USA there are solar electric plants that use parabolic mirrors to superheat salts to a molten state that then heat water to steam for a conventional turbine/generator system. The molten salts can be stored for use when the sun isn't shining. In spain they do a similar thing with heliostats focused on a tower. These are not test projects they are working now.

Perhaps the best presentation on Nuclear energy solutions I have seen to date. But first we have to complete the transition to smart metering! Why? Because we still need a ways and means of paying for public road construction, maintenance etc. by means of excise tax. Meanwhile we need to provide more efficient ways and means of getting road asphalt to where it is needed. As an example, most roads are constructed using high concentrations of Bitumen! The Alaskan Highway is an early prime example. So now we know why many of the new pipelines are XL, i.e., Xtra larger diameter..... so they can be used to transport both bitumen and diluent!

Is there also a method to use outhouse to make Biogas?

He left out one (more) Happy Fact about Molten Salt Reactors: MSRs (like LFTR) will be Smaller, with reactor cores so small as to be transportable by Rail, Truck & (cf ThorCon Power's MSR factory... to be built in Indonesia?) Barge; order one, build your small structure, that will house it to MSR-maker's spec's & install it. Since their core pressures are low, NO Cooling Tower is needed. Very small MSRs can be built that produce 700 deg C process heat (May it Never Power more Destructive Fracking!), eg, for desalination (ie, ONE MSR powers electricity generation AND a desal'n plant), etc. (By contrast, today's high-pressure reactors produce only ~300 deg heat.)

The US does have PV cell production without environmental concern. Bismuth 213 can be made in a linear accelerator. It has a half life of 45mins so any source will be difficult to leverage. Ac can be used to make Bi213 or used directly with a HL of 10 days making it more feasible. PV has 0 nuclear waste to deal with. Thorium (nuclear in general) is not the answer.

Great Talk#1 Good luck Let's talk to Taylor Wilson now

I’ve found the most slept on TED talk

Can somebody please explain the cons!! Why is it that nobody is investing in this. There has to be a reason.

Rusty Towell What a name

Cool! Still like the idea of a gas cooled high temp. Thorium Reactor that use Free Piston Stirling Engines instead of a steam turbine. But that is just me I suppose. Hey did this old digital computer patent 3190554 that computes with air. Might be useful in the Nuclear Power Industry.

Why Thorium technology is not being research with the emphasis of the "Moon Project" is beyond common sense.

If I had to choose between a MSR or a classic reactor I'd go with the MSR tech any day, but the classic power plant generation model ist out of date: In 1-2 years roof top solar will be cheaper then the cost of power grid transmission. At this point is will make more sense to store your own solar generated power in your basement (Li-ion battery) then buying it off the grid, even if the source is a PV plant or a wind mill. Even if the MSR is 100x cheaper then a classic nuclear reactor you still have to factor in long time waste storage. Any chemicals left over from PV production can be stored and recycled at a much lower cost.

A penny a day is the problem. Even if they mark it up 300% like oil and other resources, you get what... 3 cents? That's the problem.

Could not see the slides, editing of this presentation, when speaker is talking to the slide, show the slid and not the entire stage with tiny presenter

i think the time has come for distributed energy production. maintaining a power grid is expensive.

the funny thing is this isn't new this was made back around WWII the reason we didn't use it was because it didn't make uranium for bombs

LFTR, because it's time to advance the human race!

Part of the problem is it's VERY expensive to string transmission line. It's also why in the U.S. the infrastructure for power is so fragile. And more to the point , the Tennessee Valley - it didn't get electrified until the 1940's. And 1 gram for a lifetime - until of course the oligarchs figure out how to distort the cost of that 1 gram so that we pay by the kWH used. And the biggest nuclear user is the United States Navy - all submarines and carriers are nuclear. And pretty safe - at reactor life end they just take it out, swap in a new one and off they go.

thanks for youre work. i only miss out one importand thing, and in more of these talks, Thorium molted salt reactor is slowburning and low pressure, witch is The Risk of an nucleal fast breeder plant.

How difficult is it to extract those 3 M&Ms of Thorium from the 3 cubic meters of dirt? How much energy does it take?

excellent

a gravity harness (underwater wheel) uses no fuel and can produce all the electricity you need on demand and totally free

We could also use the heat from the LFTR directly to produce Hidrogen in a Iodine-Sulfur Cycle, this way we can produce Red Hidrogen and Red Ammonia, way easier to transport than elemental H2, and just build regasification plants where the demand is high, like metalurgic industries, ports, airports, and refueling stations for vehicles 🤔

1) Can existing nuclear power plants that use uranium as a fuel source be converted over to thorium fuel? That would cut down costs as well to use existing infrastructure. 2) What was not mentioned is how efficient is mining thorium? If 3 M&Ms equivalent volume of thorium can be obtained from 1 cubic meter of soil, is the cost of mining it similar to mining diamonds/other rare earth metals? How much energy is consumed in the mining process? 3) What is the cost and energy expense of refining the ore to extract the thorium? 4) Are the energy expenses and cost to mine and refine thorium cheaper than the alternatives?

give the POWER to the People. swap-able Thorium generator for EV and HOME Refuel once every Hundred Years.

Jezus christ!!!! my god that would be the cheapest energy you could imagine!!! This is awesome!!!!

The Lady in India is ....GREEN!

It freaks me out that I have dug up enough dirt for gardening in my life to procure enough Thorium for my family and then lots more.

Sooooo, maybe a Thorium microreactor waterheater?

I think there is a large group of people in the world who constantly want to stop this project from being implemented

Yeah let’s use the actual earth for energy! Good idea!

Go Go Thorium.

But is it a breeding reactors and couldn't you use u238 too?

Wonderful presentation! We will build upon this with free thinking people, get off of oil!

Have anyone ever build a working thorium reactor? All I know of is like one and it was made way back and later decommissioned...

Hydropower wasnt even mentioned in the renewables... My favorite

What about fusion is it better

I think you can see how to make it on Avasva . This is just an advice ;)

There are many people in the Philippines who are so poor that electricity will not help. They need clean water, tuition money, and food. That's it for now. Power will be needed later on.

Or was it big oil/coal et al controlling the energy we are allowed to use

i have three tic tacs... will that work

Wow I had no idea Thorium was so abundant.

Can nuclear reactors be reused for this?

unfortunately there are so many big industries who would pay billions to keep this from happening.

Rusty this is an excellent presentation of the facts. Thank you. These reactors are extremely cost effective due not only to the abundance of Thorium, but also due to LFTR safety & inherent simplicity. Why have governments blocked the path to obtain this clean, cheap, abundant energy? Because such decisions are made by those who control governments, & surprise, surprise, voters do not have a say! Ask yourself who truly controls the media & the disinformation about the so-called energy crisis? There is a crisis, but it's a crisis of perception and critical thinking skills. That's because banks control the energy sector & investments within it. Banks also control governments owing to the debt owed to banks by governments. What is the best way to create debt? Answer: Create fear, confusion and conflict. Voters could change all that too, but voters are kept ignorant. Here's proof: Have you ever heard of the "military industrial banking complex"; "weather warfare technology" or "implosion technology"? If you can't say yes to all three, you are still ASLEEP. Get conscious of the truth & stop believing 'terrifying' bullshit pumped into your head by globally controlled governments & the media. Labeling 'climate deniers' as such (for e.g.) screams how ignorant one is. Remember: global warming historically PRECEDES a rise in carbon dioxide levels. If one says otherwise, then one would be denying the historical evidence, yet many do. So, get conscious of the truth, stop being 'terrified' & start thinking rationally.

What we need to talk about is ending power plants entirely in favor of point-of-need production methods and shared distribution, instead of capital exploitation for profit.

Valid argument i think Thorium may help

if LFTR technology process is practical & ready, why don't we see it?

If this idea is so good, why don't we start deploying and stop arguing. Then we prove from there!

We should not be talking about renewables but “zero waste”. Nuclear energy has nuclear waste. Solar and wind do not have waste. They are free sources. Once the wind turbine has been made or the solar panel produced, you don’t have to keep digging stuff out of the ground. Furthermore, solar “waste” can be recycled, difficult though it may be; not impossible. Nuclear on the other hand, is not useable and any catastrophic event like Chernobyl, Fukushima etc renders the area affected unuseable for a very very long time (except for setting up solar panel farms on).

At 16:47 (costs) Rusty completely accidentally forgot to provide a price quote to provide (i.e. supply & install) one in your 1-gigawatt size. Price please. I wonder what the wear & tear is on the turbine, piping & any other components in contact with the Sodium fluoride diluant / thermal transfer fluid. Sodium chloride is a bit corrosive of iron and fluorine is a tad more acidic than chlorine. Otherwise, seems like the solution to the current giant problem of all Life on Earth to me. Let's get the show on the road.

Wind mills doesn't take years to recover their energy but under 6 month (depends on location of course). Solar cells can be safely build without poisoning the landscape and by the way - the chemics of a thorium reactor are also not cleaner. 1/4 of mankind without energy has also no grid - so a solar panel is a cheap and fast solution for them.

trying to learn something here but can't stop cracking up about his name....geeeeesh hee hee

If only we spent the time and money we spend on weapons and war on this type of tech, then we would not be fighting over precious energy resource. However the solar argument is picking up momentum as this year they have been able to produce solar energy cheaper than oil, if you could figure out the energy storage issue then job is done. Danielle Fong has come up with an idea of using a simple idea of compressed air as a form of energy capture. The great news is that there is soon going to be a few alternatives than oil, very very soon.

Liquid fuel molten salt reactors win over solid fuel reactors of ANY type... 1) Able to use 95+% of embodied energy in the fuel, as opposed to the 0.5% to 0.7% attainable in solid fuel designs before fuel must be removed and “reprocessed”, a messy and expensive operation. Fuel reprocessing in a LFTR is continuous, and done onsite, and while reactor operates. 2) Meltdown is not a problem, it is the NORMAL OPERATING STATE of the fuel. 3) Operates at near atmospheric pressure, no HUGE AND EXPENSIVE pressure vessel required 4) (and this is the big one)... would ACTUALLY be able to obviate the need for most fossil fuel resource use... which is why Holifield assisted in steering the US away from Liquid fuel power generation, and toward solid fuel that would require continuous use of LARGE amounts of fossil fuel energy for uranium mining, processing, plant construction and maintenance, and fuel reprocessing or storage. MSR would have actually given us the “safe and cheap” nuclear power we were promised, and rather than fight the whole idea of nuclear, it was much better for existing energy monopolies to steer us from behind the scenes, toward a version of nuclear that would only “compete with coal,” on it’s best day, while always presenting the horrifying risk of “meltdown”... For an interesting bit of history, and set of interpretations of the actions and motives of some of the prime players involved... see the GALT series by American Intelligence Media.

IT',S ALL POLITICS AND U AND ONLY U CAN CHANGE IT

I'm all for that nuclear power can be part of the solution, but to say for example Wind power is not cheap at this point is simply false, in much of the world it's cheaper than coal, so such a statement has not cached up to reality. However to go to zero CO2 emission with solar and sun alone is not easy, and nuclear can be a part of the solution to this.

The oil companies and pharmaceutical companies are really gonna like this idea...

Thorium reactor ... where? :)

Forward thinking first victim of a closed mind.

so, to obtain thorium all we have to do is find 3 M&M's in a big scoop of dirt?