Discussion on:

Radioactive water cleanup steams ahead at Fukushima

It's good news that at least a fraction of the contamination at Fukushima is being "cleaned" up and contained. Of course the bad news is much of the contamination is scattered all over SE Asia and or already out to sea.

Ah, but there's even worse news. Since 1960s when the US developed the technology to build thorium based nuclear reactors rather the far more dangerous uranium reactors - nothing has happened with the technology. The US military industrial complex (MIC) and the uranium industry have suppressed the thorium technology at every turn. The military because they wanted weapons grade byproducts from the uranium based reactors and the uranium industry because they want to keep selling uranium.

The only good news (but not for the US) is that India and China are moving rapidly ahead with the commercialization of the far safer, cheaper, and more down scalable thorium reactors. Thorium is 400+ times more abundant than uranium, has a much shorter half-life, thorium reactors can't have melt-downs, and can be built for much smaller applications as much lower costs. Back in the good ole US our politics and our congress are still owned and manipulated by the MIC and other big money interests and the average voter still pathetically uninformed. Probably because US media and authors like this one never publish anything about thorium - though it's common knowledge. Check Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium_fuel_cycle

Thanks for your input dduggerbiocepts,
SmartPlanet and this blog have covered thorium reactors in the past, and I've directed readers to those posts when appropriate. For those curious about the reactors, see links to some of these stories below. For those really curious (and open-minded) about thorium, see today's post about thorium cars.

--The new face of safe nuclear http://smrt.io/nutGxy
--China to develop a greener nuclear reactor http://smrt.io/qh6ZNT
--A meltdown proof nuclear reactor may alleviate fears http://smrt.io/r7TiVp

Melissa

Is there technology to remove the radioactive metals from the open ocean and the rivers and lakes and the beds of these bodies of water and the soil of the continents that have been contaminated by the disaster at Fukushima?