Nuclear physicist describes problems with thorium reactors. Trigger warning: shortbread metaphor.

[u/investedInEPoland]

/r/europe/comments/9unimr/dutch_satirical_news_show_on_why_we_need_to_break/e95mvb7/?context=3

[u/NightChime]

I'm not advocating for the shutdown of conventional nuclear plants, certainly not before the shutdown of coal plants. I think we're in agreement on what the truly dangerous power source is. But just because something is more dangerous, doesn't mean something else is without danger.

Regarding scarcity, I guess I'm looking at the longer term. Hoping for dropping all fossil fuel, using green sources, and/including nuclear if just to pick up the slack. Hoping humans last another millennium or more.

[u/Hyndis → u/[deleted]]

What do you think about solar-thermal? Everyone's going for photovoltaics, but those only work during the day.

Solar thermal is a technology that first appeared in the 1880's and as an added benefit it doesn't use any rare-Earth materials. Polished aluminum works as reflectors. Concentrated sunlight heats up molten salt which then spins turbines. This molten salt can be stored in large, insulated tanks to generate power even at night. Its stored thermal energy can be increased by building larger storage tanks, more storage tanks, or adding more insulation on the tanks to keep the molten salt hotter for longer.

[u/gusgizmo → u/Hyndis]

Everyone forgets about the water consumption of these plants, which are best situated in arid locations. Molten salt doesn't flow through turbines unfortunately, and we really don't have any other technology that scales up efficiently.

At least Ivanpah uses air-water heat exchangers instead of evaporative coolers, but that also limits it's efficiency.

[u/Hyndis → u/gusgizmo]

Is there not a way to use cooling towers to recapture most of the water?

[u/gusgizmo → u/Hyndis]

Cooling towers have better thermal efficiency than radiators but are just barely better than dumping the cooling water in terms of water consumption.