A new kind of nuclear power plant that is a lot smaller and safer than the nuclear power plants we know today. Henno Timmermans of the local party VVA in Altena would like such a ‘green’ thorium salt nuclear power plant to prevent meadows full of solar panels and towering windmills. The party will hold a symposium next Monday in the town hall in Almkerk to get this form of energy generation on the political agenda in Brabant.
Thorium reactors, also known as molten salt reactors, are still in the experimental phase. According to scientists, they are a safer alternative because no uranium is needed to generate energy. The local party thinks it is a good idea to build such a power station at the Amer power station in neighboring Geertruidenberg. “If that doesn’t work, it should also be possible in the municipality of Altena,” says foreman Henno Timmermans.
“There has to be someone who is trying to get this way of generating energy even better on the political agenda. The thorium salt plant is a spearhead of our election manifesto. With the current energy problems, it is now crucial to work this out. We are going to promote and make more widely known thorium energy with this symposium.”
“I expect that the first power stations will be operational in the 1940s.”
Professor and nuclear physicist Jan Leen Kloosterman of TU Delft is the leading authority in the Netherlands in the field of thorium energy. “During the symposium I will explain how this way of generating energy works. I expect that the first power stations will be operational in the 1940s. Many start-ups worldwide are already working on this way of generating energy.”
Proponents of a thorium salt nuclear power plant emphasize that the radioactive residual waste is contaminated for a maximum of 500 years. In an ‘old-fashioned’ nuclear power plant, that is 10,000 years. “With thorium we can generate 500 times more energy while avoiding the production of long-lived nuclear waste,” says the professor.
He can agree with the place that VVA has in mind, at the Amercentrale or in the municipality of Altena. “You could indeed build a small-scale thorium power station there. I expect that these types of smaller power stations will be built modularly. Elsewhere, the parts are put together and put together on location. New construction is therefore faster.” The nuclear physicist also mentions the advantage of the existing infrastructure in Geertruidenberg.
Earlier this year, the province of Brabant announced that it would invest 850,000 euros in research into this new form of nuclear energy. Money that will go to DIFFER research institute, which conducts research into building materials for molten salt reactors.
Because it is a sensitive subject, the local party has politely requested permission to hold the symposium in the town hall of the municipality of Altena. The municipality then asked all political parties whether they could agree to this initiative. “They have all given their consent,” a spokeswoman said.
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A report by EenVandaag answers the question whether thorium is the solution to the energy problem:
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