Honestly Thorium reactors are the only nuclear power which makes any sense. The waste is less toxic, has shorter half lives, and proliferation resistant (waste is "contaminated with a high % of U232). The fuel is cheaper, more abundant, and doesn't require expensive (and polluting) enrichment. The fuel cycle is more efficient which means less mining is necessary per unit of energy. The reactors are safer, requires less refueling, and suffers less neutron embrittlement. The fuel also has some nice physical properties, higher melting point, non-oxodizing, and better thermal conductivity, which make it safer in an "loss of coolant accident".
Great post. Too bad the world of nuclear moves so slowly, Thorium would have been/would be/will be a great stepping stone from fission/fossil fuel to fusion and solar (solar includes wind, tidal and hydro for me since they are all cycles powered by the sun)
The politicians don't care, as long as they get money to campaign from industries. If one were to do a kickstarter for a project like this all the funds would end up being spent in Washington DC and Ottawa. Countries like Iran should have taken on the Thorium dream instead of Uranium, they could take over in energy technology because they would be building a whole system from scratch.
This is probably safer than the reactors running in current powerplants, but nowhere as safe as conventional power.
Which conventional power is safe? Greenhouse emissions aside, I just heard a story about cows being exposed to the exhaust from Coal fired generators can get cancer. Then when human's eat the cow cancer antibodies and protein (which are not destroyed by cooking) they cause problems. Anyone who thinks there is such a thing as "safe" power is dreaming.