The Thorium Network

Aug 4

Episode 30 — Longevity and Reliability — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 7

Number 5 — Longevity and Reliability Because 33% efficient windmills only have 20-year lifespans, they must be rebuilt two times after initial construction to match the 60-year lifespan of 90% efficient nuclear power plants. Here’s what an anonymous wind technician from North Dakota said about the usefulness of windmills:”Yeah, we all want to think we’re making…

Unintended Consequences

8 min read

Jul 30

Episode 29 — Methane Blows Up Winds Gains — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 6

In their excellent Wind and Solar’s Achilles Heel: The Methane Meltdown at Porter Ranch, Mike Conley and Tim Maloney reported: “Even a tiny methane leak can make a gas-backed wind or solar farm just as bad — or worse — than a coal plant when it comes to global warming…

Unintended Consequences

4 min read

Jul 23

A Crib Sheet for Journalists and Students of Thorium

Are you a journalist — or a student — looking for the inside on Molten Salt Fission Energy powered by Thorium? Well this page is for you. We’ve been asked many times for a summary of resources or key people to speak with. Are we biased? Of course we are…

Thorium

8 min read

Jul 22

Episode 28 — Cow Farts — Methane is a Natural Gas — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 part 5

Number 4 — Methane [aka “Natural Gas”] Because windmills generate just 1/3 of their rated capacity, the rest is supplied by plants that primarily burn coal or natural gas — which is 90% methane, which makes more CO2. I repeat: methane, over its lifetime, is 20 times worse than CO2 as a greenhouse gas, but during its…

Unintended Consequences

7 min read

Jul 14

Episode 27 — Fake and Vulgar — The Truth Paid Bare — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 4

Number 3 — Misrepresentation and Inefficiency When wind advocates promote the glories of wind power, they use numbers based on the windmill’s nameplate rating, its maximum capacity — as in a February 20, 2015 Earth Watch article, which said, “…the total amount of wind power available… has grown to 318,137 megawatts in 2013.”

Unintended Consequences

5 min read

Jul 9

Episode 26 — Tilting at Windmills — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 3

Number 2 — Tilted Economics I understand why power companies cooperated with the rush to wind power. For one thing, renewables were demanded by a misinformed public led by many of the “green” organisations whose goals I support, but not their methods. 33% efficient windmills have received subsidies of USD 56 per Megawatt hour. In…

Unintended Consequences

6 min read

Jul 2

Episode 25 — Hazards to Humans — The Blades of Death — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 2

It’s not just birds and bats that suffer. According to the Caithness Windfarm Information Forum, “Just in England, there were 163 wind turbine accidents that killed 14 people in 2011, which translates to about 1000 deaths per billion kilowatt-hours.

Unintended Consequences

5 min read

Jun 23

Episode 24 — Blowing in the Wind. An Eagles Nightmare — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 9 Part 1

Blowin’ Wind I was thrilled when the first windmills appeared on the Laurentian Divide near my hometown of Virginia, Minnesota, but a few years later, having noticed a significant amount of “down time,” I checked on wind power’s record with the help of my new associates in the Thorium Energy Alliance and…

Unintended Consequences

4 min read

Jun 16

Episode 23 — Can’t Afford a Model T? How About a LFTR?– Unintended Consequences — Chapter 8 Part 7

Can’t afford it? A modern, 1 GW LWR generates 9,000,000 kWhrs per year which, at 10 cents per kWhr, creates revenue of USD 900,400,000 per year. Deduct USD 220 million for operating expenses for a profit of USD 680 million per year. …

Unintended Consequences

10 min read

Jun 9

Episode 22 — The Pros of LFTRs. Why They Are So Cool — Unintended Consequences — Chapter 8 Part 6

Advantages of LFTRs Many of these also apply to MSRs that use Uranium) No CO2 emissions. Proliferation resistant. Not practical for making bombs. Produce only a small amount of low radioactivity waste that is benign in 350 years.

Unintended Consequences

5 min read