This was a response that I wrote to Thorium Supporters of Kirk Sorenson

Not even a mention of, the Nuclear Thermal Rocket (NTR) developed at Jackass Flats which utilized most powerful nuclear reactors ever produced or Freeman Dyson's nuclear pulse ORION? Good luck colonizing or exploring the solar system without them. This video had so much potential to be something good. It is really disappointing, how it turned out. The model of space colonization mentioned here is just not feasible. Using a nuclear reactor to simply produce chemical propellant for space missions is truly a waste. Zubrin's crazy eyed plans for a chemical propelled mission to Mars with years long transit times is just nuts. Watching Neil Degrasse Tyson echo this insanity is also appalling.

NTR's and ORION spaceships can ferry humans to Mars and back in days or weeks. This is the infrastructure we could build, if the necessary resources were put behind it. Also I do not think this video sufficiently addressed the problems of the entrenched special interests arrayed against nuclear energy. These special interests are the reason why nuclear energy is being suppressed in America and the world. Three hundred nuclear plants could power all of the United States. But for this to happen would mean that the “fossil fuel” industry would be put out of business. So, they have demonized nuclear.

Having watched a good number of these videos on Thorium featuring Kirk Sorenson and the documentary “Pandora's Promise.” One thing is clear to me. The proponents of these videos do not understand the revolutionary character that nuclear technology represents. The Big Picture is never given. Energy is the cornerstone of our economy. The word energy comes to us via the Greek word energeia which means work. The more energy a society has the more work that society can do. So, converting our economy over to a nuclear based society means changing the cornerstone of the economy from a chemical basis to a nuclear basis.

Converting the whole economy over to nuclear power means that people who own the “fossil fuel” industry are going to be put out of business. Putting these people out of business is a revolutionary act. The owners of petroleum, gas and coal companies, who spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bribe politicians, do not want to be put out of business. They are using all of their power to prevent this revolution from happening. So, far they have been very successful. But at what cost?

I would argue that the cost has been very great. Manned exploration of the solar system can only truly take place using NTR's and Nuclear pulse spaceships. In the 1950's and 60's there were plans on using this technology to explore the solar system and we could have done so. Instead of a manned program of exploration we have been forced to settle for space probes that send in a trickle of information. Science is taking a big hit because we do not have a manned space exploration program. We as a society have put science on hold. Because of something else the proponents of these videos do not want to address. And that is capitalism.

Capitalism just cannot allow certain technologies to take hold without jeopardizing it's own existence. The prominent anarchist David Graeber in his 2012 “Baffler” article entitled “Of Flying Cars and the Declining Rate of Profit” underscores this point very well. He shows how conservatives like Alvin Toffler argued for suppressing technologies that could be thought to be disruptive to the capitalist system.  Nuclear power is one of those technologies because has the power to make electricity “too cheap to meter.” So ultimately what proponents of nuclear power are up against is the capitalist system itself. Just one look at the proposals, for the reactors, in the NTR program shows that all the electricity in the United States could be generated by a half a dozen reactors. The capitalists that bribe our politicians are not going to let that happen. Science and progress has and will continue to suffer because of their actions.

The ion drive is too low thrust to really be useful and is slower than the Orion. An Orion using nuclear pulses has a theoretical limit of 10 percent light speed. This is a vehicle that can be used to explore and colonize the solar system. From the ground up NTR's can be used to put rockets into orbit. The only reason NASA does not use them is because they have been legislated out of existence.

When it comes to letting “nuclear expand to capture 10% of electricity generation” American capitalists really did not have much of a choice. World War 2 and the Cold War played big part in that making that happen. When World War 2 ended nuclear scientists had a big image problem. They had just created a weapon that can exterminate humanity. Remember Oppenheimer's quoting from the Bhagavad Gita after witnessing the first nuclear test at Trinity? “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” I suppose we all thought that, one way or another.”  Would you want to be a nuclear scientist when people associate your job with mass murder? So among other things, the Atoms for Peace program was instituted to show that nuclear technology could do things other than kill people. This helped to mitigate the image problem. In addition it kept nuclear scientists employed after the Manhattan Project ended which prevented them from going to other countries spreading nuclear technology.

If capitalism is not an insurmountable object, then why are we not living in a world where nuclear is the only source of electricity? Nuclear is clearly the superior technology. Yet we are still using chemicals to power most of society. Have you read the Atomic Energy Act of 1946? It is clear from reading section one that our bribed legislators were already concerned about the impact that nuclear energy would have on our society. They essentially put into law a gag order known as “Born Secret” preventing nuclear scientists from talking about their work. Sorenson and other scientists could have breakthrough and be prevented from talking about it, because of this law. Using nuclear energy to power robotic factories could have happened in the 1970's producing a society where people have ample leisure time and not living in the misery work-a-day world we have now. We don't have this because capitalists prevented this from happening. The capitalist system will have to be overthrown in order to make a better world happen.