Not a laughing matter. Unfortunately, in one sense, the ideas of Teller got lampooned, but the ideas could save us all. With the ridicule, the one way that may lead to a safer, more secure world could be disregarded and disparaged. I hope that this doesn't happen.
Here's a video obtained which shows the history of the connection of the thorium fuel cycle to the H Bomb, and that the father of the H bomb- Teller- favored it. The same Teller who was ridiculed for his promotion of the H Bomb and lampooned in the movie "Dr. Strangelove". Before watching the video, let's look at this quote:
In his 90s, Teller worked with his former student, the engineer Ralph Moir, on one last project: designing a “safe” underground nuclear reactor that would run not on uranium but thorium, an element that can produce a nuclear reaction but which is all but unusable for making nuclear weapons.
I learned of the paper — published in 2005 in the journal Nuclear Technology — during an interview with Moir for the Motherboard documentary The Thorium Dream, about the growing movement of engineers and amateur scientists pushing for a thorium-based nuclear fuel cycle.
Making fun of a serious idea that will work is not a laughing matter. You may want to consider that the next time you hear someone making fun of another who is making a serious proposition. The failure to see a solution for the serious problems facing us all could have very damaging consequences for us all.
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