Look, some of those thorium nuclear reactor stories might well be true, but there are few serious claims they'll hit the market before the 2040s.
I'm sorry, but that makes them uninteresting to me.
We've got an urgent task at hand: rapid decarbonization of the world's electricity. And with cheap renewables, getting cheaper all the time, we have the means to make that happen.
Even the Netherlands will get over 70% of its electricity from wind and solar by *2030*!
Europe's electric utilities (in @Eurelectric) aim for zero emission EU electricity 'well before 2050'. A technology starting to come to the market in the 2040s is not interesting for that either. The bulk of this will be achieved through renewables again.
@eurelectric If anyone thinks thorium nuclear reactors will be able to compete in a 2040s zero-emissions electricity system based on cheap wind, cheap solar, cheap batteries, and cheap hydrogen: fine, then by all means continue the R&D.
@eurelectric Just don't mix them into discussion on how to get to zero-emission electricity within the coming 2-3 decades. And that's were society's focus should be. No time to wait!
@eurelectric The same holds for nuclear fusion, by the way. Just replace 'before the 2040s' by 'before the 2050s'. Or is it 2060s by now?
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