[doctorcroc]

For some reason users who post links don't want to read them. From the first paragraph:

"Despite its designation as a thorium reactor , it was essentially a normal on uranium fission ( 235 U) based reactor"

Additionally, a lot of the recent hype on thorium reactors is that they are actually molten salt reactors (see the oak ridge national lab experiments - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment). By using a liquid fluoride salt, you can run a thorium reactor at ambient pressure and high temperatures, leading to safer operation and better utilization of thorium in feed stock. I think one of the main concerns for this implementation is material durability and corrosion resistance. If we can figure this stuff out, this reactor model looks promising. See Kirk Sorensen's company Flibe energy and the wiki for the LFTR - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LFTR.

[XorNot]

Also potentially safer failure mode: in a run-away vent, it heats up, melts through a plug in the reactor base and drains out into a settling pan, which stops the reaction dead.

The worst thing about modern nuclear power is we won't shut the old reactors the hell down, so when you get a Fukushima it's because at every junction proposals to replace it were held up, but no one would brook just shutting it down either.