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The Lemhi Pass District in Idaho is known to have some of the largest concentrations of thorium in the world. KTVB takes us there to meet people of various backgrounds to find out if thorium indeed can become America’s next energy source.
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"We are talking about a thousand years of energy! Wow, that’s really something to think of," said Williams, who owns a Salt Lake engineering/investment company, which staked over 200 mining claims in the region. Williams has partnered with a powerful New York investment company, and is closely watching a new thorium plant about to go up in China.
The success there could push the thorium effort here in America to Capitol Hill. Something Williams says is critical in the transformation process in the U.S. from uranium to thorium. KTVB asked Idaho's nuclear watchdog, The Snake River Alliance, for their reaction to thorium as a possible future energy source for America: The entire U.S. fleet of reactors is based on uranium. The the idea that an already weakened nuclear industry would or could transition to thorium in a reasonable time-frame and at an affordable price challenges credulity. 30 years away is a long time in the energy world and there are much more affordable and achievable approaches to energy than thorium reactors. Idaho’s Thorium: America’s next Energy Source?, KTVB KTVB on site in the thorium rich Lemhi Pass District in Idaho. |