ANS -- Inventor working on thorium-powered car that could use steam turbine and electrical generator to replace gasoline engine

This is a really different car: no refueling at all.  they just have to figure out how to miniaturize it. 
Find it here:  http://techblog.dallasnews.com/archives/2011/08/inventor-working-on-thorium-po.html  
--Kim

Inventor working on thorium-powered car that could use steam turbine and electrical generator to replace gasoline engine

 

By

Victor Godinez/Reporter

vgodinez@dallasnews.com | Bio

12:58 PM on Fri., Aug. 12, 2011 | Permalink


Cadillac showed off its World Thorium Fuel concept car (yes, the WTF) back in 2009. (source: AutoBlog)

If we really want to invest in next-generation vehicles, I'd suggest a Manhattan Project for this technology highlighted Thursday in WardsAuto.com:

The key to the system developed by inventor Charles Stevens, CEO and chairman of Connecticut-based Laser Power Systems, is that when silvery metal thorium is heated by an external source, it becomes so dense its molecules give off considerable heat.

Small blocks of thorium generate heat surges that are configured as a thorium-based laser, Stevens tells Ward's. These create steam from water within mini-turbines, generating electricity to drive a car.

A 250 MW unit weighing about 500 lbs. (227 kg) would be small and light enough to drop under the hood of a car, he says.

Jim Hedrick, a specialist on industrial minerals - and until last year the U.S. Geological Survey's senior advisor on rare earths - tells Ward's the idea is "both plausible and sensible."

Thorium is slightly radioactive, but Stevens says aluminum foil is enough to block the effects, so the stainless steel container that would go around the power unit should be plenty.

And thorium cars would essentially run forever:

Because thorium is so dense, similar to uranium, it stores considerable potential energy: 1 gm of thorium equals the energy of 7,500 gallons (28,391 L) of gasoline Stevens says. So, using just 8 gm of thorium in a car should mean it would never need refueling.

...

"How do you take the laser and put these things together efficiently?" he asks rhetorically. But once that is achieved, "This car will run for a million miles. The car will wear out before the engine. There is no oil, no emissions - nothing."

Frankly, this technology sounds so amazing that it verges on the unbelievable.

The main hurdles seem to be whether this technology can be made small enough to fit in a standard car, and the cost.

I don't know about the miniaturization problem, but I suspect these vehicles would be much more expensive than traditional internal combustion cars.

That's not necessarily a problem, though.

Given that you'll never need to buy gas for a thorium car, and you'll seemingly eliminate all the wear and tear that comes from gasoline engines, the long term savings could well eclipse a higher upfront cost of a few thousand dollars. Nor will you have to pay for electricity to charge your car battery the way you do with the current generation of electric vehicles and hybrids.

Thorium cars are not new.

Cadillac showed off the World Thorium Fuel concept car (above) a couple years ago.

It doesn't seem that prototype ever came to anything.

Hopefully the folks at Laser Power Systems are ready to move this thing along.