ENERGY FROM THORIUM TO THE RESCUE!
The use of fossil fuels are being phased out, everywhere. This is due to fears that the world is slowly heating up due to human activity. Germany has lost its supply of Russian gas. They have invested heavily in Renewables, but these are unable to fill the gap left by gas. This has resulted in German industry closing down. In addition the winter will bring four months of cold homes with nothing but firewood for heating!
In Sri Lanka no-one talks of what we can use to fill the energy gap left by coal. As in Germany, it is doubtful that we can rely on wind, solar and hydro power generation for our demand for instant power at all times of the day or night.
It seems to be a taboo to talk about energy from nuclear power, but this is misguided. Going nuclear offers tried and tested alternatives to coal. The West has got generating energy from uranium down to a fine art, but it does involve some potentially dangerous practices, which are overcome by powerful engineering design which then allow safe operation. But there is also the waste products disposal problem when using URANIUM to produce power. So, using uranium gives us long term radioactive waste to store and this is expensive. Handling, transport and storage of uranium is a big problem.
But thankfully Sri Lanka is blessed with a second nuclear alternative – that of the mildly radioactive THORIUM, a much cheaper and much safer solution to our energy needs. In November 2021 Russia very kindly offered to help us with this form of generating electricity. Thorium can be a quite cheap source of energy using locally mined material. Most importantly the radioactive waste remains dangerous for only a few hundred years, unlike uranium waste. The design and supply of machines may be supplied by Russia itself – our friend in our time of need, but that form of outside assistance has still to be sorted out. ROS. Hantana. 24/12/2021