If anything has yet to peek your curiosity in the tech news recently, the Thorium car should. Many types of hybrid cars have been on the rise recently, some running on electricity, bio-diesel, while some engines even go as far as to run on air or water. The Thorium car is something that should determine you to think about what’s coming along the way.
The Thorium Car is engineered by a company named Laser Power Systems. The car produces zero emissions and runs without a turbine. It runs on just electricity and goes to show that the modern world propulsion systems that run on fossil fuels are getting close to being obsolete. The alternative offered by the Thorium car should get everyone thinking whether it’s worth going on riding with gasoline in your tank.
The Thorium car relies on nuclear thorium lasers to fuel it. And here is the knocker… the engine only requires 8 grams of fuel every 100 years or so. According to what Charles Stevens, CEO and chairman of Laser Power Systems, based in Connecticut, has to say, just one gram of thorium can yield energy equivalent to 7.500 gallons of gasoline. The principle behind it is roughly simple: it is harnessed by heating the energy from the outside-in and as such, the energy gets so dense that the molecules start generating heat.
Thorium is a radioactive element that occurs naturally and has a massive potential of overthrowing the current nuclear energy production if thorium reactors are implemented. It can replace the use of uranium, rendering it safer in the long run. It is known that a score of countries and military agencies have been experimenting with thorium to fuel vehicles. The modern day trend is set though for a civilian model, the Thorium car.
A retired chinese nuclear scientist, Fang Jinqing, from the China Institute of Atomic Energy states that: “The technology works in theory, and it may have the potential to reshape the nuclear power landscape, but there are a lot of technical challenges.” He completes his statement saying: “If a thorium, molten-salt reactor can be successfully developed, it will remove all fears about nuclear energy.” As such one can imagine the application it can have for the Thorium car; clean, safe, efficient and sustainable fueling.
Now, worldwide, the collective conscience is becoming aware of what has to be done in order to halt the degradation of the environment. The Thorium car is just one step that can be taken in order to avoid that. It is evident that nuclear energy and fossil fuel consumption need to be replaced by an alternative, and thorium is just one of them.