CONSIDERABLE SHOUTING said:
Thorium has such issues around it because it's really easy to transmute Thorium into plutonium with such reactors, otherwise we've built a small handful and they seem to be working per their scientific models. Typically I'm not too concerned about nuclear proliferation, but with the funny Iran is pulling RIGHT NOW with the international atomic energy commissions their fear has merit.
So? The most dangerous, corrupted, rogue, bloated, and/or reckless governments on Earth already have nuclear weapons: U.S., Israel, U.K., China, and Russia. In fact, the only country on Earth to have murdered cities full of people with these weapons still has thousands of them, enough to wipe out complex life all by itself, and they are wasting yet trillions more dollars upgrading their arsenal under the guise of serving the public while the basic needs of the bottom half(or more) of said pubic go unmet and as the infrastructure degrades from neglect. If those listed nations are allowed to have them, ANYONE should be allowed to, including individual people. Otherwise, no one should. Anyone who ever decides to deploy them deserves death, IMO. Iran is the theocracy it is precisely because of the actions and meddling carried out by the first three countries on that list that ruined Iran for daring to be be a secular democracy and for it adhering to the wishes of its population at the expense of powerful/moneyed interests within those countries, and the first two countries on that list aren't far behind Iran in the progress of imposing their own flavors of theocracies. These weapons are already in the hands of the worst people on Earth, and they're more than willing to use them to maintain their dominance and power if it comes to it(otherwise, why have them?). You and I and everyone else here are merely collateral at best, probably fodder, to these people. Yet your average Joe isn't allowed to experiment with new technology because THEY might be able to make the same weapons, if they ever amass all of the financial resources and a team of scientists/engineers for everything needed to do so?
If terrorism were really the threat it is hyped to be by the "news", someone could easily make a highly-effective and nearly untreatable bioweapon with some human waste, a microscope, some petri dishes, and a few containers of anti-bacterial soap. If they wanted to get more sophisticated, $200 could get them started with the tools to play around with genetic engineering in their garage, basement, or apartment(not much space is needed, less than a drug lab). And if deployed, its origins would likely be completely untraceable. If playing with thorium were legal, it still wouldn't be as accessible as any of that, let alone making plutonium out of it, let alone making a nuclear weapon out of that.
The plutonium bugbear is holding back a possible/partial solution to our energy woes, and one that allows average people to go off-grid. All because a few powerful people fear others having that same unjustifiable power to destroy life on Earth that they do, and who can use the full power and force of the state to enforce their will. It's childish and stupid.
Meanwhile, I just checked the gas station down the block. $4.89/gallon for regular unleaded. Most people were already living paycheck to paycheck before the price increase. That extra $200/month they're paying to get back and forth to work was probably their food budget, which is also rapidly rising in cost. Shortages loom thanks to the consequences of all of the lockdowns, "stimulus"(handouts to the wealthy/corporations disguised as saving the economy), and other government-backed COVID-related nonsense, so food too will keep increasing in cost, and the majority of people can't afford the cost increases(even in the U.S., the land of compulsory wasteful consumption). Just watch and wait. Things are going to get even more interesting soon.
I already get a LOT of hate riding my velos because hateful people can sense I'm not having to pay for fuel. Last week, one Karen in an SUV was following me and screaming at me to get off the road because I'm not paying my share. She then threatened to hit me(one actually did last year, long story) to force me to get off the road. It was amusing. I dared her to get out of the car and talk(I was seriously going to give her advice on how she could save some money and explain what the vehicle was), and she got scared and said she was calling the cops. :lol:
People are losing it, and this shitshow's barely begun. Stock up on non-perishable food, learn how to filter water, and get a cheap solar system going y'all. While there's still time.
:lol:
