You wouldn’t normally associate nuclear power with green energy.
But a little-known radioactive element called thorium could supply the world with all its energy requirements for 10,000 years.
That’s according to Huddersfield University dean and leading energy expert, Professor Bob Cywinski.
Nuclear technology may be infinitely safer and more refined than it was in the days of Chernobyl or Three Mile Island – but old images persist.
Prof Cywinski says people’s perceptions of nuclear energy as dirty, dangerous and uncontrollable are out-of-date but they are what keeps nuclear power off the mainstream energy agenda.
Meanwhile in Western Europe, electricity generation, heating and transport – mostly using fossil fuels – each account for about a third of the CO2 produced.
Nuclear power generates 4g of CO2 per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to 8g for wind power and a whopping 1kg for coal, 850g for oil and 430g for gas.
And unlike uranium and plutonium, which are wasteful and extremely toxic, thorium is efficient and will not react unless it is forced to.
Thorium can also generate energy by burning uranium and plutonium waste with a minimum of waste or toxicity.
And there are already huge reserves of thorium which were unearthed in the search for rare-earth metals, which are used for magnets.
Indeed, a 500g golf ball sized piece of thorium can provide one person’s energy needs, including transport and heating, for life.
Thorium power was extensively researched in the 1960s by nuclear physicist, Alvin Weinberg, and while the technology is yet to be harnessed on a grand scale, it has won numerous supporters.
Advocates of thorium power include former anti-nuclear campaigner Baroness Bryony Worthington, who is part of an all-party parliamentary group on thorium.
Prof Cywinski has researched energy for eight years and worked alongside the former director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, and leading particle physicist Carlo Rubbia.
Of all the energies he has investigated, Prof Cywinski believes thorium is the forerunner.
Prof Cywinksi said: “It’s our job as scientists to acknowledge and address the problem. It’s no use telling people to not be frightened and accept it. You have to tell them why.
“Nuclear, I believe, is the safest form of energy we have.
“It’s a question of trust. I value my academic integrity. I’m not going to prejudice that by making up stories...
“Let’s not pretend we’re saving the planet by ripping up the land to put up these wind farms. Let’s have a planet that’s worth saving.
“There’s a place for wind energy but if we do it, let’s do it right. Let’s not divide communities.”
