"Energy from Thorium" Activities

In addition to maintaining two blogs of my own - Nuclear Green and and bartoncii - I am also a member of the "Energy from Thorium" team, and I regularly cross post to their web page. Most of the action at "energy from Thorium isnot on the front page of the blog. "Energy from Thorium" also has a very lively and interesting discussion area, for those who are unafraid of encountering technie talk. For those who are not put off by it, I have little doubt that you will find the best discussion on advanced nuclear technology on the internet. The conversations are often penetrating, and illuminating. People are not at all afraid to challenge assumptions. Ideas are born and presented. The good ones find support. Bad ideas got shot down. New participants show up and put their two cents worth in. There are quite literally hundreds of topics in the "energy from Thorium" discussion section, and thousands of comments. I am actively involved in the discussions in addition to monitoring them. Truly exciting ideas have emerged from the discussion and continue to do so. For example recent discussions have focused on the use of advanced technology materials in the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors. Another highly interesting line of discussion now centers on a solution to the problem of nuclear waste. Properly managed in LFTR's nuclear waste could help supply the United States with all of its energy for a thousand years. If the world were to use the same system of nuclear waste disposal, it would be supplied with enough energy to bring all human beings up to the standard of living enjoyed by Western Europeans. The Techie talk of the discussion section of "Energy from Thorium", far from being boring, offers an exciting glimps into a future, in which energy shortages are not the order of the day.

In addition to the frequently exciting discussions on Energy from Thorium, Kirk Sorensen has launched a Wiki. I am already working on a very extensive entry on Alvin Weinberg. I hope that this entry, while not definitive, will be the most comprehensive biography of Weinberg on the internet, at least for the near future. I also plan an entry on my father. I hope eventually to add entries on all of the ORNL people I have written about on Nuclear Green, as well as make contributions to the process of shaping a variety of wiki entries.