Reply To: Shock treated nanocrystalline copper allows reduced anode radius

[Elling]

We all just adore the sarcastic uninformed bickering of the best among us, yeah
They are afraid of one single Bequerel but can’t see the problems coming from radioactivity and particles from coal.
Technocrats unite..

I don’t think it’s the startup costs that is currently stopping the Thorium reactor. It might be just the other way around : spectacular projects should have a high price tag for credibility.
Rubbia does not want to transfer accelerator designs outside Europe, for research monopoly or patriotric reasons.
Work to improve the synchrotron for sufficient reliability is ongoing. Possibly the RF powering and the proton injector are the failing parts. The fuel cycle needs to be fully worked out. I’m not competent to say whether an attempt on a full scale commercial reactor is justified now but necessary preparations would certainly accelerate (hmm) if the money was on the table. Simulations and nuclear expertise are now so mature that new reactors can be expected to perform right out of the box.
The more conservative Thorium approach was done to get rid of the Russian Plutonium stock. WER-100 reactors are currently operating.
http://www.thoriumpower.com/

Maybe FF will need more money than announced. The semiconductors for downconverting and recycle xrays, are they readily available ? Could there be a need for extra stuff to excite the critical amount of plasmoids like microwave heating, lasers, magnets ? Could the engineering phase be sped up by spending money lavishly in a parallell crash developement effort ?