[rfvtgb123]

There are no working reactors (not even tested designs) that harness the potential of thorium. Experimental plants have had serious problems (edit:)and low power generation from thorium (see for example THTR-300 in germany; beware of the english wikipedia page, it is incomplete). So... come up with a safe design for a thorium reactor? (Edit2:) Until then, you might as well say fusion. Anyway, none of this is a reason to keep classic LWRs going.

[dsego]

What about the liquid fluoride thorium reactors? There's been some hype about these recently: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbyr7jZOllI

[rfvtgb123]

This is just molten salt reactors all over again. They have disastrous security problems. Basically the salt eats away metal parts of the reactor, the graphite moderators are flammable and large parts of the reactor become radioactive because they catch neutrons which makes repair, maintenance and deconstruction almost impossible.

(edit:) I forgot about loss of fuel solubility events and the unsolved problem of tritium retention.

(edit:) It's interesting how the english wikipedia pages miss all the details on the failed projects in this field.

[dsego]

Strange, Kirk Sorensen (the guy in the video) seems very sure that these are much safer then any other alternatives. They don't have to be pressurised and water-cooled. Instead there's passive security with a frozen plug and a drain tank. Here's a longer documentary with lots of details (about 2 hours) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31HEijtqF5I