Why Thorium will be a Game-Changer in Energy 

I love the full frontal attack on nuclear safety myths! More people in the industry needs to learn this communication technique.

I like the point that we're ok with coal killing 1 million people a year, but nuclear isnt safe enough unless we reach 0. Much like driving will only ever be 100% safe if we set the speed limit to 0 kph

I've been following the subject of Thorium powered nuclear reactors for about 10 years since Kirk Sorensen rediscovered the molten salt thorium fueled reactor concept and popularized it. This company is the closest I've seen so far to actually producing a commercially available small reactor and they seem to have thought through how to work out all the problems fairly well. I'm very interested in seeing how it works out as there are a lot of competing videos about how well this will work. If Copenhagen Atomics really has got something that really will last all those years and really will "burn" nearly all the fuel so the long term waste problem is greatly reduced, I think its a really good thing.

Did you know? Caesium-137 can be transmuted to stable Barium 136 & 137 by proton bombardment (~13 MeV) from an accelerator. In the process, a gamma ray and a neutron is released, which could be absorbed by Thorium, for instance. Even this fission product has more to give, if used creatively and treated with respect. Keep-up the good work.

I am so happy I found you guys! I am from India and we have failed to build Thorium reactor. Seeing you succeed makes me real happy since we have 20% of world's thorium reserve. India will likely be your biggest market, since India can't transition from a coal based grid to a solar/renewable grid, but we can replace coal with nuclear for sure. Your work significantly affects our future and I thank you for it. Looking forward to visiting you guys in a few years to collaborate on bringing this to India. Godspeed brother!

I'm a (ex) chemical engineer, so I love this. Food for thought, and i love the very positive mindset. There was a japanese team who developed ion exchange for U extraction from seawater. Not economic but still interesting from a research perspective. Fabulous presentation, as always 👏 Always loved my trips to Denmark, Faroes, and Greenland ❤

To make energy using thorium, a type of fuel, we need to add a special ingredient that helps keep the energy-making process going. Think of it like needing a spark to keep a fire burning. The only sparks that work for thorium are three rare and hard-to-get materials: U-233, U-235, or Pu-239. Getting these materials is not easy, which makes the whole process quite challenging but not impossible.

In Australia at the moment there's this augment between renewables & nuclear ... but the thing is there's no off the shelf nuclear systems that governments can buy... What is the TOTAL PRICE?????? including the whole build ... not part .. not maybe ... The costings need to be public knowledge so our energy systems can be planned!!!!

Nuclear is just as needed now in 2024 as it will be 2044 or 2444... Even the relatively rudimentary technology in place now can do the job if we respected it, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't keep striving for a cleaner and greener world of advanced reactors or alternative fuels like CA is doing. Kudos! As a Canadian, I look forward to the day when the last 14% of electricity in Canada not currently powered by nuclear or hydro is generated by advanced next gen Thorium or Uranium as well as renewables including closed loop geothermal....

Whether we're talking about thorium or fusion there are two main issues that will continue to get in the way and prevent their widespread use: 1. Cheap and abundant energy doesn't generate enough profit and 2. They do not contribute to mass destruction. Unless the corporations building and running these plants can soak the consumer for more money through higher prices they won't be willing to invest enough to bring it to fruition. At least with uranium they can say "We have all this dangerous waste to deal with so we need to charge you more to help figure it out" and with fusion they'll say 'We'd love to offer this incredibly cheaply but we spent so much money over so many decades just trying to figure it out so we need to make up for that in the price we charge you". There will NEVER be abundant and cheap electricity for the general person. Our dependence on electricity is one of the key means governments can use to control their populations. We haven't achieved these reactors and technologies not because we haven't figured it out yet but we've been KEPT from figuring it out. Never underestimate human greed.

I'm very glad to see the plan over the next few years. You guys are really doing a super job thus far!

Very inspiring! Wish you all the best of luck! I was a science reporter making radio programs about Carlo Rubbia's "energy amplifier" using thorium to produce fail-safe thorium-based energy.

The most important difference to Uranium/ Plutonium cycle is Thorium breeding can be done in thermal spectrum. Making MSR reactors possible. But there are many different needs for energy and then different processes. Most forgotten is thermochemistry. Much more focus on this topic is needed.

I am in my 60's and close to retirement. I have worked in Telecom for the past 40-some years, it has been interesting. However, if I was a young Engineering student these days, nuclear power would be the field I would be studying. This will be a very exciting field for decades to come.

I’m super glad to see these videos come out now from our TEAC 12! It was great fun and informative as usual. Thomas is a really nice guy and easy to talk to as well and his dedication is second to none. 👍

The proposed costs and timescales are a fantasy. The cost and time to build of a Uranium PWR is due to the large amounts of concrete and steel involved, which is largely driven by safety concerns. How can you avoid that with Thorium reactors?

I was excited about thorium reactors 24 years ago. All optimism has been beaten out of me.

I really hope CA is able to do all this and more!

It is quite amazing how far we've come, such a pleasure to have been working for CA for several years now! Can't wait to see this baby humm!

Interesting video.

Having seen only a couple of videos on the technical side of this, which were aimed at non-technical viewers like myself, it was interesting to hear someone talk about rolling it out as a business, with fairly specific dates etc. Thank you.

This should have been done decades ago. The US had two working test reactors at Oak Ridge in the 60's until Tricky Dicky Nixon scuddled the project. Next, we need to have someone resurrect the suppressed technology of water powered vehicles such as the inventors Stanely Meyer and Dennis Klien perfected.

At last!!!! An update from Copenhagen Atomics. The Premium Thorium, New Nuclear company. Please keep on with sane, non-hyped answers to the doubters (be they Old Nuclear, Fusion, Fossil fuel or good old fashioned nuclear deniers).

Hell yeah!!! It's on!

I love the enthusiasm, seems like a very serious attempt to pull off this world changing technology. Would love to work there!

Seems like the video I have been waiting for. Even as a child I knew that the UK paying the French vast sums of money to take our "spent" nuclear fuel at the time was insanity. I used to get up at 2am to watch Open University every day. Some of the Best information available in the days before the internet ~_^

@CopenhagenAtomics Can you please provide a link to the Q and A for this presentation? Thanks.

Your work is really great We need such tech for decarbonisation

At 21:00 you say your thorium molten salt reactor will be the worlds first thorium molten salt reactor? So does that mean that the Chinese thorium molten salt reactor prototype is not an operational reactor yet?

It's amazing calling out other companies like that because of heavy investment words when it's just practical science. Your character and integrity is outstanding ! 👏

There are just too many problems to make a reusable rocket, and that's why nobody built one yet. Oh wait...

With the CANDU heavy water reactor, a constant problem was controlling the tritium produced in the deuterium (heavy water) by neutron bombardment. Have you provided for this?

CA et al technology is the reactor equivalent of smart phone, verses one with a dial and a bent bell . . . but safer.

Deployment: This can be sped up by using the nuclear heat source as a replacement for burners in coal plants... For 1GWe, you're looking at about 1/4 the size of burners, assuming SMR - including containment and your intermediate loop (no water inside the containment building) The guy who died in Fukushima had a heart atack in the cabin of a bridge crane during the earthquake and couldn't be rescued in time. 2 more died in the tsunami (drowned in the engine room basement). The number of radiation deaths was _zero_ and even injuries were only confined to some lightly burned ankles (standing in contaminated water trying to shut down the flow) which healed within weeks 76 people are known to have died at Chernobyl. Outside of the reactor site it's unlikely more than a dozen died from radiation effects (more likely zero) WRT: Corrosion in molten salt reactors - it's nonexistent cpompared with corrosion in EXISTING reactors. High pressure&temperature water isn't a friendly substance

Does Copenhagen anticipate ever designing a reactor to accommodate high temp sCO2 coolant for optimal thermal efficiency using a sCO2 turbine? Of course sCO2 turbines are also not ready for commercial use but they are being developed sort-of in parallel, and it seems likely they will become commercially available sooner than later. There must be significant efficiency on the table sticking with heavy and light water coolant...

You really didn’t explain how your reactor is so much better than SMR’s on an apples to apples comparison

Kirk Sorensen in one of his videos points out that profits from reactors come not from building them, but from the custom fuel modules they use in a razor/razor blade profit model. From that I'll extrapolate and suspect that some or even most of the resistance to LFTRs specifically is that that profit model is destroyed when your fuel is salts supplied in paper bags or plastic barrels. BTW, it also ticks me off to hear about new, "advanced" reactors that are just improvements on ancient technology.

6-18 months to bring a thorium reactor on line-you couldn't get the building constructed in that time! However, I do hope there is a great interest and success in building and operating these.

I'd love to see some of these reactors powering Australia!

Regarding safety: He has only considered short term deaths. Radiation health effects over extended time were not considered.

I am not the world's best power supply engineer, but I understand money. This video is good.

Amazing work.

the huge number 1 problem with Thorium is the time it takes to breed fissile U233 from fertile Th232. The half like of the intermediate isotope Protoactinium 233 is roughly 27 days, which is 10 times longer than the half life of the intermediate isotope Neptunium 239 in the U238 + n to Np239 to Pu 239. Therefore it takes 10 times longer to breed enough U233 fuel from Th232 as compared with the time it takes to breed enough Pu239 fuel from U238. Which is why the Indian project to run the country on Thorium was expected to take 70 years when it started over 50 years ago, and they're still in the early stages. We simply do not have the time to create a Thorium powered nuclear fleet.

Let's go !

Amazing! Mass manufacturing nuclear power plant!! This is a paradigm change in the production of energy!

There have been three 'major' incidents at nuclear power plants. The first preceded a major & detrimental change in US policy which helped to fuel political support for that policy and resulted in 0 deaths. The second happened under incredibly extreme circumstances where numerous safety protocols were violated very intentionally pushing the reactor far beyond perimeters where it was fully known beforehand that were outside safe levels for that reactor-type to operate. That nuclear facility was also capable of breeding fuel that could compete with other reactors capable of breeding fuel for any new reactors and could arguably seen as a business-is-war approach to removing competition ordered by a governing body in a satellite state where remnants of that same governing are now waging a 'special military operation' against that now separate sovereign nation. Imo, it's pretty blatantly clear that wasn't an accident but rather a low-grade act of war. The third major nuclear incident was the result of a freak act of nature that subsequently led to the reduction in use of nuclear worldwide ..including in Germany.. who then (subsequently) shut their nuclear industry down and proceeded to increase energy inputs & dependence on the same country involved in the previous major nuclear incident. Probably coincidental especially given that even with said 'special military operation' leading to sanctions adopted by Germany reducing non-nuclear fuel dependence on Russia still get fuel from Russia and are trying to continue getting fuel from Russia via a loophole in said sanctions that will drastically increase inputs of hydrogen-rich ammonia via a fertilizer-as-fuel approach to continue their East Germany as vassal state of Soviet Russia addiction to Mother Russia that's clearly an incredibly difficult addiction to break once imposed. As a +1 to the 3 above, what is constantly pushed as being the danger of one industry is rarely ever mentioned as a danger for others and that's the radioactive byproduct of the industry Thermal energy radiates out of every turbine and subsequent thermal source involved in turning one.. be it nuclear n.gas diesel/gasoline or even coal. Not to mention are the radioactive particles released in flue stack emissions in the form of alpha particles which coal stacks are notorious for blanketing surrounding countrysides with.. and populations living within them. Not limited there, the coal ash itself also has a strong tendency for blowing around or seeping into surrounding waterways, itself containing radioactive materials rarely mentioned. These environmental contributions have far less 'fear' promoted around them and subsequently far more deleterious effects on the health of both the environment & populations affected by them. What's good for the goose is good for the gander and should be applied accordingly .. especially since global coal use (and its mining) not only exceed nuclear use (and its mining) and growth rates.

I wish you would focus on the energy deficit and the need for way more ener🎉gy due to 1. Population 2. AI 3. Peak oil and how coal is the default option. Why the duck curve limits the amount of renewables even though the cost is declining a lot. Then talk about breeding uranium reactors along with thorium reactors. Talk about how your design is smaller and more simple va fast reactors. I will try to email some concepts to frame the problem well.

So have you tested the concept with thorium?

If you have a 500mm thick steel containment structure, there isn't a truck on the road allowed to haul that without special permitting and heavy restrictions of routes. Then you have to find a heavy lift crane. Seems like a fundamental issue being overlooked. It's literally over a million pounds of steel for a container sized containment unit at 500mm thick.

according to scientific data, there are a lot of thorium is the Istanbul. one scientist discovered that and focused her research on creating power from thorium. She and her team got killed by an airplane accident. Some people say that it was no accident and They believe they were murdered. You can check that also. Her name was Prof Dr Engin Arık.

I was all excited about Thorium about 10 years ago especially LFTR's. It's been a while since I heard any mention of Thorium. I'm not holding my breath but maybe it will take hold we'll see.

Reducing spent nuclear fuel danger period from thousands of years to 300 years seems like a huge advancement. But 300 years is still a long time. Will future society be able to keep it safe? Will the housings stay intact? Will natural disaster or war cause release of the extremely dangerous material? Will funding continue to be available to maintain storage facilities?

All the best to the entire Team from Bharat 🇮🇳 India …worth exploring all options from our developing Nation’s perspective where Cost of Energy is the key to sustainable development of the future economy of Bharat 🇮🇳…

Exciting!

People have been looking up to the sky to get to the moon, even mars. It takes strong leadership and a clear vision to reach such goals. Yet people tend to overlook what happens on the ground, this endeavor is the equivalent of reaching Mars. I like that the Onion reactor looks like the daemon core, just without the prompt critical danger. It tells the story of the progress that was made throughout the years.

isn't this fabulous? would love to know the physics behind the onion concept...

The only time I talk about LNT is when aggressively argue for the total disbandment of it's usage. Also, the comparison U vs Th is not fair. Are talking about the amount of fissile material, then there is infinity more resources on the U side since Th is not fertile, but if are talking about fertile material then the whole amount of U must be included as it can be used in breeder reactors j́ust like Th.

Been years,half a century really since I was working this stuff, but I remember reading deeply into Thorium... If I remember it works to >< 800 degrees and if gets too hot, melts a plug at the bottom of the containment, spilling out into a prepared enclosure to reduce the the rate of reaction... so cannot melt down. The construction is 1/2 that of the 'breeder' reactors. Unfortunately the AEC and DoD wanted to make bombs way back and dumped Thorium as it was very difficult to produce usable weapons grade. So we got a bomb material reactors. Today a Nuke power plant will cost over 10 billion and take 20 years- ten for permits and 10 for construction. The >

Both thorium and U238 are fertile, not fissile. Both need a breeder reactor to be utilized. The difference is that the world has a shit tone of U238 already mined, milled, and stored waiting to be used. Actually, we pay a lot of money to store this ready-to-go fuel. Why not use it up first?

Dear mr. Pedersen, I can’t wait for you guys to get this up and running! But please explain the following; I’ve heard you say that one University in the Netherlands wants to install your build Thorium Molted Salt reactor in the Netherlands for tests etc. but now I just found out the company NAAREA from France and Thorizon from the Netherlands are cooperating in doing exactly what you are doing. What is true here and what or who should we follow.

Copenhagen Atomics is one of the more exciting energy companies to keep an eye on in the coming decade🎉 Solving global energy problems with innovative and groundbreaking technology with a focus on mass manufacturing. Makes me excited for the future!

This should be shown to every science class in the world once a year

"Extract uranium into the blanket and we put it in the fuel salt" Does he describe what happen in the blanket or is it a separate chemical process?

I recall Kirk Sorensen say that it was required to get Protactinium out of the blanket for decay in a seperate tank. Seems Copenhagen Atomics found a better way? No word on how to get the different fission products out of the reactor salt. I hope all this is in scope of their first demo reactor. An energy transition that doesn't include a power source for the energy hungry heavy industries, is just make believe. I really hope Copenhagen Atomics can pull this off.

Looks very promising. If all this is true, why is there not one thorium reactor already in operation? Who or what is in the way?

What is the actual name of Copenhagen Atomics' thorium molten salt reactor? Would have liked to have heard Thomas compares TMSR, not to traditional uranium/fission reactors, but either to other Thorium reactors (ex. Oklo)... or to fusion projects.. gravitational, magnetic (JET/ITER), inertial confinement.. or Magnetic/Inertial like Sam Altman's 6 Helion prototypes. Do any of these address the issue of nuclear waste any better?

10 years ago, Thorium was 6 months away. Today, it's 95% ready.

I find it very hard to believe that we can't make a reactor that is safe in this modern age, it makes sense as a base load solution over anything we are currently burning to do the job and seems complimentary to renewables. Just so long as it isn't taking funding away from expanding renewables to their practical potential.

Is there a way for me to Download the Presentation from this video?

Well, looks optimistic for sure.

Keep it going this development

holy moly that was a bombshell. Thomas was incredible with his delivery of all this mind blowing information, really exciting stuff! That bit about being able to get 10x more out of spent fuel than the old reactors did out of it before it was used is insanity. I hope that Copenhagen and the nuclear energy community at large gets to spread their wings and really show the world how much of a gamechanger nuclear energy really is. prove the way with fission and then fusion comes along with the bat to blow the doors wide open.

It's also still being used cause it can actually be used. It works.

Unfortunately, Mr Pedersen is not quite as well versed in nuclear reactor technology as he should be. The CANDU nuclear reactors in Canada operate using non-enriched U-238. Furthermore, they can be modified to use thorium instead of uranium. A significant challenge to wider adoption is that these reactors are heavy water reactors and therefore they require a much larger upfront investment for the deuterium. As a side note, they can also be refuelled while in use. That being said, if the CA reactors prove viable, I would love to see them adopted widely.

Thanks for doing this talk, looks like India is about to build these for itself as it's thorium rich. I hope the UK looks into this .

props to the cam peeps

What are some technical problems you think that can become hurdle in this amazing project. By the way nice beard.

have to use it at some point if everything is going to be electric I hope you make them harden against EMP ,

How do you the reactors work?

At around 21:00 you mention you don't know of Thorium-based MSRs, there is one based in China although I wouldn't consider it very useful because the Chinese are unlikely to provide us with credible info about its operation; its called TMSR-LF1. It was opened last year I believe. Interesting talk btw, will wait for more

So instead of trying extract from why not try to use a conductor as a duality now I see this as future of electricity

2:45 you have to use enriched uranium to start a reactor running on thorium just the same as would be for a fast reactor using uranium. As for the graph should uranium to thorium, it’s not including the uranium in the ocean.

Just one note though, traditional nuclear may be your competitor but it is NOT YOUR ENEMY. Framing it that way does a disservice to both parties... Stick to fighting fossil fuels! I also hate when nuclear activists attack renewables.. They complement but don't complete directly either too, IMHO. One is base-load 24/7 great for industrial uses and keeping the grid stable, the other is "green" but not entirely reliable without massive grid-scale batteries which complicates matters a bit but is still the most affordable option around at this point... Even here in the oil empire of Alberta...

Candu reactors can do thorium while having some Uranium in the middle of the core to get the Thorium going.

Compelling presentation. I dont have any expertise to assess the feasibility of it all, I hope it is true. However when you talked about the dangers of radiation and comparing it to electricity, I have to give this some thought. The idea is that radiation can evoke cancer in the future, that is called stochastic effects (as opposed to deterministic, the effect of electricity). I know there is a lot of debate about LNT, but nobody really questions the (small) possibility of future cancer due to radiation larger than about 100 mSv. How does that compare to your electricity metaphore? 10V, which is absolutely harmless in any case?

Any time you have to form an "alliance", it should give pause.

Where does the initial U233 needed for this reactor come from?

❤

You guys have any new updates yet?

Is it possible for heat to be created with no water in the reactor?

need one garbage can sized to power my prepper catamaran, water purification and walkin freezers onboard, will have to wait out the shit that is ongoing in the middle of pacific....

CA is doing some very interesting and promising things. News to me in this presentation is however the 50 cm steel enclosure. Really? If that is massive steel, it will mean 400 tons for a 40' container. How do you plan to to move that to site? Or have I misunderstood?

India already did it, we’ve built worlds first thorium breeder reactor.

can u give me a price estimate of a thorium power plant in norway?

Has CA been in contact with Euratom about getting reactor licensed in Europe?

when is the outer layer bred salt removed? how is the U234 content dealt with?

Uranium or Thorium pick one. The primary advantage of either is the molten salt issue. Ed Pheil has the best design. He has several RU-vid videos.

I'm sharing this with my son to introduce him to this concept and make sure he's ready for the future that science and development would bring. I suggest we all share this with the younger people around us.

I am an incurable Kool aid chugging thorium bro .....and I'm on the hunt for new recruits!! (Moving to Guyana not required)

India has a running thorium reactor with 500mw output.