[bovine3dom]

It isn't just the reactor that is over-specced - anything to do with nuclear is held to a much higher standard than anything else, relative to the actual risks.

Thorium molten salt reactors have been bandied around for a while, especially in India due to necessity, but I fully expect governments to still make unrealistic demands of them, and therefore drive them up to unrealistic prices.

Stuff like this depresses me - I don't see how politics can handle grown-up conversations about trade-offs like this when people will just vote in the cake-and-eat-it parties.

[pfdietz]

When it comes to MSRs, thorium is a distraction. The benefits of MSRs have very little to do with the presence of thorium.

It's important for MSR proponents to focus on the actual benefits, rather than fake benefits, so they don't make bad engineering tradeoffs.