Car Runs For 100 Years Without Refueling - The Thorium
Electric cars are about to be made to look like donkeys. Hydrogen cars are about to be made to feel about as advanced as a herd of goats. Forget what you know, because cars that can run for 100 years without refuelling could be just around the corner.
There's a new propulsion technology on the horizon that uses an incredibly dense element called thorium. It's so dense that even the smallest grain of it has the potential to create more heat than a dozen clones of Eva Mendes.
And okay, we're well aware that nobody apart from Rolls-Royce and maybe Bentley could make a car that could last for 100 years, but it's a nice round number and it's what's on the table.
Thorium Powered Car, Drive 100 yrs on 8 grams of fuel!
Thorium is an interesting nuclear fuel, but its not magic.
It still has many of the inherent problems of all other nuclear power. The very thing that makes nuclear power attractive (a million times more energy than conventional fuel) also carries inherent problems.
Nuclear power, suitably tapped is very safe, and a very clear source of power. However the idea of using nuclear power to fuel cars is just bloody stupid. To run a car you need about 200 kW, and the idea of putting a nuclear powerplant in a car that could supply this amount of energy is just bloody stupid on almost every level.
If your car was powered by thorium, you would never need to refuel it. The vehicle would burn out long before the chemical did. The thorium would last so long, in fact, it would probably outlive you. That's why a company called Laser Power Systems has created a concept for a thorium-powered car engine. The element is radioactive, and the team uses bits of it to build a laserbeam that heats water, produces steam, and powers an energy-producing turbine. Thorium is one of the most dense materials on the planet. A small sample of it packs 20 million times more energy than a similarly-sized sample of coal, making it an ideal energy source. Source: Mashable NOW WATCH: The Revolutionary Thorium Reactors Explained
