Thorium nuclear power is the only realistic solution to power space colonies. To form space colonies, power has to be provided to sustain the colony. This means that Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors (LFTR) have to be fully developed and operational here on earth before serious space colony development can even begin. It need to get started in earnest NOW!
Kirk Sorensen has provided an intriguing teaser on the cause for Thorium nuclear energy.
Watch it and enjoy!
In between the Apostle Paul’s first and second letter to the Corinthians we read two Psalms and two chapters of Ezra.
July 3: Psalm 51, Psalm 52, Ezra 3, Ezra 4 (click on the chapter to begin reading)
Psalm 51, of David, written after Nathan confronted David after his adultery with Bathsheba. This Psalm explains fully, how God would say, after David was pointed out to be both an adulterer and a murderer: “He was a man after God’s own heart”.
Psalm 52, Of David. The Psalm is a contemplation of David, contrasting the final end of evil men with the rewards of the righteous.
Ezra 3. Worship was restored in Jerusalem and the restoration of the Temple began to great rejoicing, but also weeping.
Ezra 4. There arouse resistance to building the Temple and the rebuilding of Jerusalem was successfully opposed (for a while).
In between the Apostle Paul’s first and second letter to the Corinthians we read two Psalms and the first two chapters of Ezra.
July 2: Psalm 49, Psalm 50, Ezra 1, Ezra 2 (click on the chapter to begin reading)
Psalm 49, of the Sons of Korah. This psalm is more of a teaching Psalm and give instruction on how to live and hope of salvation “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, For He shall receive me”
Psalm 50, of Asaph. God says “for every animal of the forest is mine,
and the cattle on a thousand hills.” and “Sacrifice thank offerings to God,
fulfill your vows to the Most High,
and call on me in the day of trouble;
I will deliver you, and you will honor me.”
Ezra 1 begins with the end of the Babylonian captivity and Cyrus decree to rebuild the Temple. The people prepared to return to Jerusalem.
Ezra 2 lists the captives who returned to Jerusalem.
A Thorium based nuclear power generator produces Pu-238 as one of the final TRansUranium products, which is in short supply and much in demand for space exploration nuclear power.
NASA relies on pu-238 to power long-lasting spacecraft batteries that transform heat into electricity. With foreign and domestic supplies dwindling, NASA officials are worried the shortage will prevent the agency from sending spacecraft to the outer planets and other destinations where sunlight is scarce. Thorium reactors produce PU-238 as a “free” byproduct. In 2009 Congress denied a request to produce more Pu-238 by traditional means, instead relying on Russia to sell us the plutonium. (Remember the Russian reset?) Russia made their last delivery in 2010. PU-238 production has since been restarted by converting Ne-237 to Pu-238 at a cost of over 8 million dollars per kilogram. The Ceres-Dawn spacecraft used over 22 Kg of Pu-238 as electricity generator.
To get the best efficiency of generating Pu-238 out of a molten salt Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor, the excess U-233 and TRansUranium products have to be extracted continuously while the reactor is running, and this technology is not yet implemented, but is necessary to implement before we can also have Thorium power on the moon, and Thorium Power is the only viable solution if we are ever going to have a moon colony, so we should get to it.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden lambasted President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic Tuesday, saying that Trump is “in retreat” with more 125,000 Americans dead and the virus worsening in many states.
In March, President Trump used a press conference to promote the use of hydroxychloroquine, a common anti-malaria drug, to treat Covid-19, saying: “I sure as hell think we ought to give it a try.”
He followed this with a tweet that claimed the use of the drug in combination with azithromycin, an antibiotic, could be “one of the biggest game-changers in the history of medicine”. On Sunday April 5, Trump again touted hydroxychloroquine, saying “there are some very strong, powerful signs” of its potential as a Covid-19 therapy.
Trump has been repeatedly contradicted by public health experts including his own top infectious diseases adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, who has warned that there is only “anecdotal evidence” that the drugs could be helpful. To prove his point, they produced in short order three studies, one from the Veterans administration and two from hospitals showing that it had no positive effect on people sick enough to fight for their lives. At a Neil Cavuto show (FOX) a medical doctor even claimed “If you take it outside of a physician’s supervision You will die!” Meanwhile this very drug has even been given to pregnant women and nursing mothers as a treatment for Lupus with no restrictions, and they take it for life, or until the lupus disappears.
There are at least ten countries that prescribe HydroxyCloroQuine, mostly in combination with Zinc and an antibiotic, as soon as COVID symptoms occur. When the illness has progressed to the point of autoimmune overreaction and the oxygen exchange is to the point of collapse it is too late and may even aggravate the situation.
The ten countries chosen are: Turkey, South Korea, Malaysia, Senegal, Costa Rica, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco, Russia and Qatar. It can safely be assumed that not all of these countries have a health care system superior to ours. How are these ten countries faring in the Corona-virus fight, compared to the rest of the world?
For the world as a whole, the death rate from the Corona-virus as of June 30 is 4.85% of diagnosed cases. and recovered cases versus deaths is 11.28 recorded recoveries for every death.
For the United States the death rate from the Corona-virus as of June 30 is 4.77% of diagnosed cases. and recovered cases versus deaths is 8.78 recorded recoveries for every death. or about the same as for the world as a whole.
Taking the average, adjusted for the number of positive cases, the average adjusted death rate for ten countries, where people are taking HCQ + Zinc as soon as they are diagnosed positive, is 1.51%.
This means that the risk of death is reduced by a factor of 3.2 if HZQ + Zinc is taken as early as possible after a positive diagnosis for corona-virus!
Recovered cases versus deaths is an indicator of how fast patients recover after taking HCQ. Taking the average recovery ratio over the number of cases, gives the median recovery ratio, of 55.5, compared to the recovery rate for the rest of the world of 11.28, an improvement of 4.9 times as many recorded recoveries for every death. This is an indicator of how fast people recover, but is a very lagging indicator, since many countries do not report recovered cases in a timely manner. If they did, both the numbers for the ten countries, and for the world as a whole would look better, but it is the best measurement we have for now.
The total positive cases for these ten countries are over one million, or about 10.0% of all positive tests so far, far more than any double blind controlled study could ever produce, and indicate that if implemented all across U.S. (and the world as a whole) the death rate from now on would be about a third of what we are now experiencing. In addition hospitalizations and hospital stays would be greatly reduced.
WHO paused a double blind study out of an “abundance of caution”.
HCQ has been taken by over one million patients testing positive for the corona-virus as soon as symptoms did arise or shortly thereafter. We do not need a double blind control study, the results speak for themselves.
Is it because it has been promoted by President Trump, and some would rather die than get cured because of that?
Is HCQ too cheap to promote? It is totally generic, no pharmaceutical company stands to gain from producing it, so there will be no study made by them. Any study will have to come from government, or a university not depending on grants from the pharmaceutical industry.
Is it too dangerous? No, it is approved and has been given as a prevention for malaria for over 50 years, it has been approved for combating Lupus for over 20 years, and can be given to pregnant women and nursing mothers with no restrictions. There is a small number of cases involving heart arrhythmia, but these patients can be monitored with an ECG, and if the condition is severe they can be advised not to take the medication.
It is high time to save lives. Implement the Hydroxychloroquine + Axithromycin + Zinc regimen to be taken as soon as symptoms occur or testing positive NOW! Do not wait for the double blind confirmation tests, they take seemingly forever.
Appendix: The data is used from https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/
The death rate from all causes doubles for every 8 years as you age or about 9% per year. The death rate from Corona-virus is remarkably the same as the death rate from all causes, adjusted for age. The world median age is 30.4 years. So let the world death rate be the norm and adjust for the median age for the 10 countries.
World death rate as of June 25 is 4.77% of diagnosed cases. and recovered cases versus deaths is 8.78
Compare this with 10 countries that use HCQ for most patients as soon as they test positive for the corona virus.
Turkey: Death rate 2.57%, median age 30.9, adjusted death rate 2.45%, recovered cases versus deaths 33.7, total cases 199,906
South Korea: Death rate 2.19%, median age 30.9, adjusted death rate 2.10% recovered cases versus deaths 41.2, total cases 12,850
Malaysia: Death rate 1.40%, median age 28.5, adjusted death rate 1.68% recovered cases versus deaths 69.0, total cases 8,639
Senegal: Death rate 1.65%, median age 18.8, adjusted death rate 4.44%, recovered cases versus deaths 44.2, total cases 6,793
Costa Rica: Death rate 0.46%, median age 31.3, adjusted death rate 0.44%, recovered cases versus deaths 89.7, total cases 3,459
United Arab Emirates: Death rate 0.65%, median age 30.9, adjusted death rate 0.62%, recovered cases versus deaths 119.2 , total cases 48,667
Bahrain: Death rate 0.33%, median age 32.3, adjusted death rate 0.28%, recovered cases versus deaths 260.6, total cases 26,758
Morocco: Death rate 1.82%, median age 29.3, adjusted death rate 2.00%, recovered cases versus deaths 39.1, total cases 12,533
Russia: Death rate 1.44%, median age 30.9, adjusted death rate 1.38%, recovered cases versus deaths 44.2, total cases 647,849
Qatar: Death rate 0.12%, median age 30.9, but since 88% of the population are migrant workers between 20 and 60, the adjusted death rate is at least 8 times higher, or 094 %, and adjusted recovered cases versus deaths 90.2, total cases 96,088
In between the Apostle Paul’s first and second letter to the Corinthians we read one chapter of Proverbs and the last two chapters of second Chronicles.
July 1: Proverbs 8, 2 Chronicles 35, 2 Chronicles 36 (click on the chapter to begin reading)
Proverbs 8 praises the excellence of Wisdom.
2 Chronicles 35. Josiah celebrated Passover lavishly but after that he foolishly engaged king Neco of Egypt, who intended to fight somebody else. The result was that Josiah died in battle. One of the mourners was the Prophet Jeremiah and he wrote Lamentations.
2 Chronicles 36 tells a sad story, the reign and captivity of Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim and Jehoiachin. Zedekiah was granted king by Nebudchadnezzar but rebelled. This led to the fall of Jerusalem and seventy years of captivity. 2 Chronicles ends with Cyrus’ Proclamation.
A Thorium based fast breeder nuclear reactor produces much less TRansUranium waste, 0.012% waste products compared to a Uranium-235/238 fast breeder with between 3 and 8% U235. The Thorium process has a much higher efficiency of fission than the Uranium process. See the figure below. 
Pu = Plutonium, Am = Americum, Cm = Curium, all TRansUraniums, nasty stuff.
With Thorium based Nuclear power, there are few storage problems, with traditional U235 power long tern storage is an immense and urgent problem, and has been since the 1960’s. At that time Sweden had a heavy water U-238 nuclear power program going using unenriched Uranium, but abandoned it in favor of traditional U-235 enriched nuclear power, because U.S. promised to provide the material and take care of the reprocessing and final storage of all nuclear waste at cost if Sweden joined the nuclear proliferation treaty. Reprocessing was to be done in Washington State, and one of the final storage sites mentioned was Yucca Mountain in Nevada, having the ideal geological properties.
Time went by and in 1982 – Congress passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Act, requiring the establishment of a deep geologic repository for nuclear waste storage and isolation. Yucca Mountain was high on the list out of of 9 possible sites.
Time goes by, and Congress is still not able to decide on a solution. Meanwhile, TRU’s from spent and reprocessed fuel is piling up in less than ideal locations. There is now more than a quarter million metric tons of highly radioactive waste in storage near nuclear power plants and weapons production facilities. Thorium based nuclear power would go a long way to alleviate this problem.
In between the Apostle Paul’s first and second letter to the Corinthians we read three Psalms and two chapters in second Chronicles.
June 30: Psalm 46, Psalm 47, Psalm 48, 2 Chronicles 33, 2 Chronicles 34 (click on the chapter to begin reading)
Psalm 46, of the Sons of Korah. “Let us sing the forty-sixth psalm in concert; and then let the devil do his worst.” (Martin Luther)
Psalm 47, of the Sons of Korah. “Sing praises to God, sing praises“.
Psalm 48, of the Sons of Korah. “Great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised.”
2 Chronicles 33. Manasseh king of Judah became a sorcerer, repented and was restored but eventually died and was replaced by Amon , who reigned for two years, did evil, was killed and his son Josiah became king.
2 Chronicles 34. King Josiah tore down the altars to the idols, but not before he had their priests killed and burned on them. Then he took up offerings to restore the temple. Hilkiah the priest found the Book of the Law. Josiah then restored the temple and the temple worship and the people followed as long as Josiah lived.
Thorium is a by-product of mining heavy metals and rare earth metals. The price is the cost of extracting and refining, which can be as low as $40/Kg. No extra mining is required for extracting the Thorium, and we all know that mining is a major source of pollution.
The first thing we must realize is that rare earth metals are not all that rare. They are a thousand times or more abundant than gold or platinum in the earth crust and easy to mine, but more difficult to refine. Thorium and Uranium will be mined together with rare earth metals.
U.S. used to be the major supplier for rare earth metals, which was fine up to around 1984. Then the U.S. regulators determined that Uranium and Thorium contained in the ore made the ore radioactive, so they decided to make rare metal ore a “source material” with all what that meant for record keeping and control. 
This made mining in the U.S. unprofitable so in 2001 the last mine closed down. China had no scruples, such as human and environmental concerns, so they took over the rare earth metals mining and in 2010 controlled over 95% of the world supply, which was in line with their long term plan of controlling the world by 2025. Luckily this has now been rectified with U.S. and Australian mines reopened, but the U.S. mined ore is still shipped to China for refining. However, in July 2019, President Trump activated Section 303 of the Defense Production Act to declare domestic production capability for rare earth elements and other critical minerals “essential to the national defense.” Domestic refining is scheduled to begin late 2020.
So, why is this important? Just take a look at all the uses for rare earth metals. The most sought after pays all the cost of mining and refining, and the rest are readily available at nominal cost.
The Chinese almost got away with it, and that was but one reason the trade negotiations were so complicated and hard fought, but necessary. Donald Trump fought for reciprocity and fair competition. Since the onset of the COVID -19 pandemic, originating in Wuhan, China, it has become more and more obvious that China can no longer be allowed to be single source supplier of anything.
We live in challenging times with enormous environmental challenges. It takes a lot of energy to clean up the pollution we have generated over the ages. It would be a shame to use up our remaining coal, oil and gas to produce the electricity needed to clean up. Oil coal and gas will eventually be depleted and we need to save as much as possible for future generations, so they can enjoy flying like we have become accustomed to. It would be a shame to convert the remaining fossil fuel to CO2 for electricity production, it is far too valuable a resource in limited supply. Like the famous conservationist Sarah Palin once said: “for when it’s gone, it’s gone.”
The need to develop a Thorium based molten salt fast breeder nuclear reactor to develop our energy needs for the future can not be overstated. Lest anyone should be threatened by the words fast breeder, it simply means it uses fast neutrons instead of thermal neutrons, and breeder means it produces more fissile material than it consumes, in the case of Thorium the ratio is about 1.05.
There is enough Thorium around to last for a million years at today’s worldwide electricity generation levels. Uranium is in short supply. Consumption exceeds production, and the worldwide major importer of Uranium is the U.S. (The fact that we sold 20% of our uranium ore to the Russians did not help)
There are of course the sustainable energy sources such as wind, solar, hydroelectric, biomass, geothermal, tidal and wave energy, and they should be pursued where economically and environmentally appropriate. These are separate but important subjects.
Len Bilén's blog, a blog about faith, politics and the environment. 