Archie Bunker & Al Gore = Best Friends

[sgreger1]

The problem we have with these public transportation systems is .......

They aren't viable as long as we have cheap oil.

Here's your Thorium:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf62.html

The problems include:

The high cost of fuel fabrication, due partly to the high radioactivity of U-233 chemically separated from the irradiated thorium fuel. Separated U-233 is always contaminated with traces of U-232 (69 year half-life but whose daughter products such as thallium-208 are strong gamma emitters with very short half-lives). Although this confers proliferation resistance to the fuel cycle, it results in increased costs.
The similar problems in recycling thorium itself due to highly radioactive Th-228 (an alpha emitter with two-year half life) present.
Some concern over weapons proliferation risk of U-233 (if it could be separated on its own), although many designs such as the Radkowsky Thorium Reactor address this concern.
The technical problems (not yet satisfactorily solved) in reprocessing solid fuels. However, with some designs, in particular the molten salt reactor (MSR), these problems are likely to largely disappear.
Much development work is still required before the thorium fuel cycle can be commercialised, and the effort required seems unlikely while (or where) abundant uranium is available. In this respect, recent international moves to bring India into the ambit of international trade might result in the country ceasing to persist with the thorium cycle, as it now has ready access to traded uranium and conventional reactor designs.

and your Thorium reactors:
http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf77.html

Thorium is no magic bullet, it's not a new discovery, its commercial application is at minimum 10-20 years away.

Your right, cheap oil is what is keeping this whole thing going. Not sure how to fix that, but I know it can be done.

As for thorium, your right it's not a magic bullet. I don't believe anything will be. I'm just saying that while it's not ready for commercial use yet, it is an old concept that was scrapped and has some benefits over uranium fueled reactors since it produces less waste and we have a lot more thorium than we do uranium.

I think nuclear fuel should be a part of the green movement even though the environmental groups oppose it so much. It's not perfect, but it's waste can be contained and it doesn't get sprayed into the atmosphere. So at least it's a step in the right direction.