How can we provide everyone on earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change?
Our options are limited and many of them come with great challenges, contain uncertainties and even force us to make sacrifices. This video shows how the Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), a U.S. Department of Energy laboratory, made experiments back in 1969, and believed they could do just that - providing affordable clean energy to everyone on Earth - with thorium in a molten salt reactor.
Our world looked very different in 1969. It was a time dominated by visionary optimism and fierce competition between U.S. and the Soviet Union. It was the year Apollo 11 astronauts took the first walk on the Moon and Richard Nixon became President of the United States of America. The Soviet Union launched Soyuz 4 and the United States, USSR, and about 100 other countries signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT).
Today, arguably our biggest challenge is solving the world’s energy problem: how to provide everyone on Earth with affordable energy without contributing to climate change? If we look at what energy source has powered the world’s growth in the last 10 years we can clearly see that it is fossil fuels like coal and gas, not wind and solar as we have hoped for and how the media has portrayed it.
However, just as Dr. Alvin Weinberg predicted during the height of anti-nuclear movement in the 1980s that there would be a ‘Second Nuclear Era’, the world is today rediscovering (read our report on ‘all the efforts around the world’) thorium as the best available energy source for affordable and clean energy.
Oak Ridge National Laboratory has now published an interesting video showing its vision and work from the ‘glory days’.
The film was produced in 1969 by ORNL for the United States Atomic Energy Commission to inform the public regarding the history, technology, and milestones of the Molten Salt Reactor Experiment (MSRE). Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Molten Salt Reactor Experiment was designed to assess the viability of liquid fuel reactor technologies for use in commercial power generation. It operated from January 1965 through December 1969, logging more than 13,000 hours at full power during its four-year run. The MSRE was designated a nuclear historic landmark in 1994.
When you look at what drives yourself and all the world’s organizations it is worth thinking of a thoughtful comment Dr. A. Weinberg (MSRE leader) made a long time ago. He questioned, ‘Can a frugal, energy-starved world flourish without social strife, largely resulting from scarcity and want?’
Thank you ORNL for publishing this important video. Looking forward to seeing other content from your archives.
It’s never too late to do the right thing, let's pick up on the work they started!
Let us know in the comments how you like the ORNL vision in 1969 and what the next step should be.