Fire, Oil….Thorium

Opinion, by Antônio Brassil

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Thor, the Norse God of Thunder, is known for striking both fear and punishment against his enemies. Thorium, like Thor, contains a similar power to change to destroy its energy competitors with its amazing power and force.

Thorium is an element virtually unknown to all earth’s inhabitants, and yet, with the capacity to serve all those oblivious inhabitants. Thorium is the world’s best kept secret, an element with a power so amazing that its proponents view it much in the way that Christ’s disciples must have viewed the story of their recently sacrificed friend and savior. Thorium has the power to light the world ablaze. What is Thorium you ask?

Thorium is an element as abundant as lead, three times more common than uranium. Simultaneously, it is 40 times more powerful than Uranium and it is 100% useable unlike Uranium’s meager success rate of 0.7%. To top it all off, it is less wasteful and ideal for generating nuclear power without the potential for generating a bomb.

Seems like a perfect remedy for the current difficulties that the international community faces today, like Iran and North Korea. Why have we never heard of this wonder element? Well, simply because it cannot kill our fellow man.

During the Manhattan project, scientists in the United States tested a variety of different elements to make the bomb that would eventually end the war. Although Thorium easily outclassed both uranium and plutonium in nearly every category in terms of creating energy in a safe, efficient, and cost-effective way it was not chosen for development. Why? Thorium is not fissionable in and of itself and therefore, did not serve the purposes of a bomb to end the war.

What followed was the cold war and billions upon billions of dollars invested in nuclear energies that could kill millions upon millions in seconds. Thus, thorium was left behind its less-efficient, more expensive, more complicated, and destructive fissionable brother elements.

However, recently China, India, and private enterprises in the United States have begun to look to Thorium investments as a way to meet the massive energy needs of the BRIC and other growing countries in the slowly fermenting new world order.

Brazil has become a world leader in deep sea oil exploration, the development of ethanol fuels, and natural gas exploration. Brazil’s relative energy independence has garnered it a great amount of stability with the ever uncertain ebb and flow of the world petroleum markets.

The world will need more energy solutions to quell the ever expanding global demand. Just as Brazil pioneered advances in all the aforementioned technologies it is time for Brazil to embrace Thorium as the safe, effective, and clean alternative that it is.

Sooner or later Thorium exploration and development is inescapable. Brazil needs to jump ahead of the competition with the pride and confidence of already being an established pioneer in new energy technologies. Furthermore, with over 12% of the world’s Thorium reserves Brazil has a vast natural advantage it must exploit.

Aggressively developing Thorium will help Brazil jump ahead of its competitors, as well as end battles that have occurred within Brazil over Hydro-powered dams and nuclear power projects. Safe, cheap, sustainable, and near endless energy is not a dream, it is possible.

Historically peaceful Brazil is the perfect nation to show the world that Thorium can light the world ablaze without actually risking lighting the world ablaze.