When leaders talk about the future of energy in this country, they often say “there’s no silver bullet.” They say to generate electricity, the U.S. has to rely on a mix of coal, natural gas, nuclear and renewables. Well, today we hear from a man who says there is a silver bullet. He’s not alone in saying this. It’s an alternative to uranium... a little known, radioactive element called thorium. “Once people understand how thorium reactors work," says energy writer Richard Martin, "they realize that almost all of the problems around waste, around safety, around proliferation, and so on, will be solved if we convert our reactor fleet to thorium and build new liquid fueled thorium reactors.” Martin, who lives in Boulder, has a new book called “Super Fuel: Thorium, the Green Energy Source for the Future.” He spoke with CPR’s Zachary Barr.
