Al-Thor-native Energy

A few months ago, social media like Facebook and twitter were flooded with Thor memes. Pinoy humor and ingenuity would throw in just about anything they can grab and relate to Thor. Here are a few pics in case you don't remember this happening.

But this is not about another Thor meme. But also, it's not exactly about astronomy but since the issue of global warming and climate change are topics now getting hotter everyday. Here in Manila, the monsoons have been bringing more and more rainfall than in the past. Just about recently torrential rains flooded Manila more devastating than it did in the past, proving that climate change is very real. But not only in Manila this climate change is getting more globally apparent, like the US recently had  Frankenstorm Sandy .

Since we are looking for alternative sources of energy to help reduce the levels of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and since thorium is still not popular in mainstream media, I thought that it might be something that deserves more attention.

Thorium like Thor the superhero got its name from the Norse god of thunder since it was discovered by a Norwegian mineralogist.  It is naturally occurring radioactive chemical element that is much more abundant in nature than uranium which is at the moment a main source of nuclear power that we have today. And like uranium, thorium has the same properties to be used as a nuclear fuel but only safer, cheaper, and cleaner. It is radioactive but only in safe levels, so slight that they say you could carry a lump of it in your pocket without harm. It is cheaper because its very abundant in the earths crust that there is enough to power earth for thousands of years and cleaner because it produces far smaller amounts of radioactive waste elements.

In the Philippines, we have one nuclear plant - Bataan Nuclear Power Plant(BNPP) but because it is one symbol of Marcos' martial law power and corruption during that regime, plus the potential threat to public health, it has been criticized and opposed by many political, environmental, and even religious sectors. Under opposition the government put BNPP to the backseat. So far in the backseat that in fact, next year 2013, no budget has been allotted for its maintenance to keep it intact, and there are proposals to sell it to private sectors.

If thorium is thought to be safer, cheaper, and cleaner, then why is nobody using it?

Nuclear programs around the world are young and still in love with uranium, plus the superpower countries like the US who are supposed to lead have stop their research in 1970s and still leaning towards uranium because it can be turned to nuclear weapon easily.  But after Fukushima disaster we were again reminded that we need to look more into alternative of uranium. And today, US, China, India, and UK, are conducting separate researches. China and India are now one step closer as they are already building reactors. If any of them makes the breakthrough then they will be doing a favor to all mankind and perhaps we can revive and modify the reactors of our own BNPP to use thorium.