# Thorium powered car?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 16, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952 "2011-08-16T20:56:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/1 "2011-08-16T20:56:18Z")
Does [this](http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/technology-blog/tiny-block-thorium-could-power-car-forever-203442766.html) make any sense to anyone? Are they talking about incorporating a thorium fission reactor in a car? :eek: Or is it something else? Or has the reporter just been pranked? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/2 "2011-08-16T21:29:15Z")
it’s so light on detail that I can’t figure out if the reporter is missing facts or if the whole thing is a steaming pile. I mean, a laser “heats” the thorium, and “heat surges” boil water to run a steam turbine. Since we obey thermodynamics in this house, the “heat surges” must be coming from either fission or radioactive decay. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/3 "2011-08-16T22:39:22Z")
I can’t believe there was no mention of dilithium crystals. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/4 "2011-08-16T23:01:26Z")
[Here’s the company’s website.](http://laserpowersystems.com/) It doesn’t look promising. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [August 16, 2011, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/5 "2011-08-16T23:08:59Z")
yep. woo detector’s going off. ---
**Author:** ![user\_hostile](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/user_hostile/32/474_2.png) [@user\_hostile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/user_hostile)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/6 "2011-08-17T01:59:46Z")
You can expect to see a flying car long before you see a Mr. Thorium® auto. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/7 "2011-08-17T02:11:38Z")
> [@Silophant](#): > > [Here’s the company’s website.](http://laserpowersystems.com/) It doesn’t look promising. They must have spent hours and tens of dollars on that website. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/8 "2011-08-17T03:16:48Z")
But it’s Thorium!!! Where do I send the money??? Don’t you all get it??? Yes, I’m kidding. ---
**Author:** ![Silophant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a698b9/32.png) [@Silophant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silophant)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/9 "2011-08-17T05:27:21Z")
No no no, you have it wrong. The Thorium’s not worth investing in. You want to invest in the technology that unlocks it’s value. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 6:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/10 "2011-08-17T06:01:27Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > But it’s Thorium!!! Where do I send the money??? Don’t you all get it??? At least it’s slightly more creative than a car powered by “Browns Gas”. I’d like to know if he has actually sucked in any investors. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/11 "2011-08-17T06:19:02Z")
I hope to see what the new Highwayman and Corvega models will look like. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/12 "2011-08-17T16:04:11Z")
Not that it isn’t bullshit, but perhaps they’re claiming that the thorium can form a [nuclear isomer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_isomer) battery. Shades of the [hafnium bomb](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hafnium_controversy)! ---
**Author:** ![Whack-a-Mole](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whack-a-mole/32/141_2.png) [@Whack-a-Mole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whack-a-Mole)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/13 "2011-08-17T16:31:08Z")
> [@user\_hostile](#): > > You can expect to see a flying car long before you see a Mr. Thorium® auto. Ford Motor Company actually had a concept for a nuclear powered car. I know, sounds crazy and it is but they really did consider one. > [@](#): > > The Ford Nucleon was a scale model concept car developed by Ford Motor Company in 1958 as a design on how a nuclear-powered car might look. The design did not include an internal-combustion engine, rather, the vehicle was to be powered by a small nuclear reactor in the rear of the vehicle, based on the assumption that this would one day be possible based on shrinking sizes.[1] The car was to use a steam engine powered by uranium fission similar to how nuclear submarines work.[2] > > The mock-up of the car can be viewed at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, Michigan. > > SOURCE: [Ford Nucleon - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Nucleon) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/14 "2011-08-17T16:37:10Z")
Yeah, but that was around the time when _everything_ in the future was going to be atomic. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [August 17, 2011, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/thorium-powered-car/592952/15 "2011-08-17T16:37:16Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Ford Motor Company actually had a concept for a nuclear powered car. > > I know, sounds crazy and it is but they really did consider one. Next on Sixty Minutes, Ford and their nuclear-powered Pinto.