Japan keep all reactors closed - Dr. Makhijani on Fukushima (IYLTP)
Channel: beVivre
Date: 2012-06-07

This is an extracted part from the interview by Dr. Helen Caldicott with Dr. Arjun Makhijani (published 01.05.12)

source video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4P7DlufqQM
publication: http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=6100 
mp3-download: http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/audio/IYLTP%20-%20Ep%20186.mp3

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Dr. Arjun Makhijani on the downsides of the proposed thorium reactors and why solar power will save money and save lives
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In this program, Dr. Caldicott interviews plasma physicist and electrical engineer Dr. Arjun Makhijani is the President of the Institute for Energy and Environmental Research (IEER) http://ieer.org/ . 
A recognized authority on energy issues, Dr. Makhijani is the author and co-author of numerous reports and books on energy and environment related issues. He was the principal author of the first study of the energy efficiency potential of the US economy published in 1971. Recently, he co-authored Carbon-Free and Nuclear-Free: A Roadmap for U.S. Energy Policy (2007) http://ieer.org/resource/reports/carbon-free-and-nuclear-free/ . Dr. Caldicott and Dr. Makhijani primarily address the hazards of the proposed thorium reactors, which nuclear scientists are now advocating. They also touch on how much less expensive a program to solarize rooftops would be. 
Near the end of the interview, Dr. Makhijani gives his perspective on the ramifications of the Fukushima meltdowns. He refers to a May 2012 article he wrote for the U.S. and Japanese press, May 5 could mark new beginning for Japan with reactor shutdown http://english.kyodonews.jp/news/2012/05/157816.html . 
To listen to Dr. Caldicott's earlier interviews with Dr. Makhijani, click http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=2663 , http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=4707 , and http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/?p=45 .

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Thorium (Th) -- 232 is a naturally occurring radioactive element, alpha emitter, half-life ~ 14.05 BILLION years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium

Th is NOT a nuclear fuel, it is NOT fissile, i.e., it won't sustain a chain reaction.

When Th is bombarded with neutrons, it turns into Plutonium-239, which is fissile.

Some fissile material (uranium or plutonium) is needed to run a Th reactor.

Thorium can be used in the present-day reactors, but most advocated are LFTR's, or Liquid Fuel Thorium Reactors, that operate @ very high temperatures (double of the present-day reactors') @ atmospheric pressure.

Th is not a nuclear fuel, it needs fissile material in salt form (molten salt fuel). Because of the molten salt fuel, there can't be a meltdown, BUT the radioactive materials can still escape into the atmosphere.

Problems: potential emissions of radiation into the environment, extremely high temperatures, materials' durability, flammability of the molten salt fuels. Non-proliferation argument is also false.

For more information -- listen to the interview and visit Dr. Caldicott's website! http://ifyoulovethisplanet.org/

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How are the activities of those who design and operate nuclear reactors as well as nuclear storage facilities in any way private? How are the operations of companies extracting oil from, say, the Gulf of Mexico or the Tar Sands of Alberta, in any way private? What is private about the assaults on ecology and public health that have been shown to occur regularly and on a massive scale in the industrial transformation of matter into energy? Who is supposed to pay for the clean up when supposedly-private corporations mess up? Who is to be held liable in societies where the for-profit corporations have been legally structured around the concept of limited liability?

Dr. Anthony J. Hall: From Hiroshima to Fukushima, 1945-2011
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2011/03/28/from-hiroshima-to-fukushima-1945-2011/

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