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Truth, Reconciliation, and Food

Thorium Reactor Lecture

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Nuclear Power Close your eyes and picture a nuclear power plant. What do you see? Toxic fumes billowing from smokestacks? Deformed animals and children? Glowing green radioactive waste leaking out of corroded barrels?
People have long since held a fear of all things nuclear, partially due to the collective trauma caused by the Cold War and nuclear arms race of the 50s and 60s. Several well known nuclear catastrophes such as Fukushima and Chernobyl have also shifted popular perceptions of nuclear reactors to dangerous and evil.
These catastrophes, however, are anomalies in what is, in reality, an incredibly efficient and clean source of energy, and our fear of it is holding back technological progress.
Much of our fear of nuclear energy stems from a basic lack of understanding. Below is a link for an explanation of how nuclear reactors work by the Department of Energy. Read it before continuing.
https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/nuclear-101-how-does-nuclear-reactor-work

Next, it is important to understand why we should even be concerned about the need of nuclear energy in the first place. Jesse Jenkins, a professor of engineering at Harvard, (1) explains the growing need for electricity, and (2) the need to decarbonize electrical sources.

Unfortunately, as Jenkins will explain in this next video, nuclear power plants (along with Carbon capture techniques) are lagging behind other renewables, and are at a global standstill.

This clip from a TED talk by Michael Shellenberger, a environmental policy writer, will explain why solar power and wind energy, while viable options, cannot singlehandedly solve the energy crisis.

However, there is a major problem with nuclear power. People really hate it. Shellenberger elaborates;

Despite its public reputation, there have been numerous developments and innovations in recent years concerning nuclear power that vastly improve its safety and efficiency. Thorium reactors are one such development. Not only is Thorium a more naturally abundant element than Uranium, reactors can also run on recycled fuel, producing very little waste. They can also be paired with molten salt reactors, which are self regulating, essentially insuring that they can't melt down.

Here, Kirk Sorenson, a nuclear engineer, explains a bit more about how wonderful Thorium reactors could be.
This next clip explains why it's so imperative that we use marketing strategies to get the idea of Thorium reactors into mainstream public vision.
This last clip summarizes not only why we should be more accepting of Thorium reactors, but why we should collectively change our outlook on nuclear energy.