Listening Post

Podcast: History of the Earth (LS 42 · TOP 1.5% what is this?)
Episode: Episode 397 Carbonatites
Pub date: 2018-04-30

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

Carbonatites are strange igneous rocks made up mostly of

carbonates – common minerals like calcite, calcium carbonate. Igneous rocks

that solidify from molten magma usually are high-temperature rocks containing

lots of silicon which results in lots of quartz, feldspars, micas, and

ferro-magnesian minerals in rocks like granite and basalt. Carbonatites

crystallize from essentially molten calcite, and that’s really unusual.

Most carbonatites are intrusive, meaning they solidified

within the earth, and it wasn’t until 1960 that the first carbonatite volcano

erupted in historic times, proving that they form from cooling magma. The

eruption at Ol Doinyo Lengai in Tanzania occurred on a branch of the East

African Rift System, and most carbonatites are associated with these breaks in

continental crust where eventually a new ocean may form.

Mt Lengai, Tanzania, photo by Clem23

(Creative Commons License - source)

Eruptions at Lengai, whose name means “mountain of god” in

the Maasai language, are the lowest-temperature magmas known because calcite

melts at a much lower temperature than silica-rich compounds, around 510

degrees C versus 1000 degrees or more for most magmas. It isn’t even red-hot

like most lava flows.

A simple and early interpretation of carbonatites was that

they represented melting of limestone, but geochemical data indicate that they

really do come from primary igneous material that probably originated in the

mantle. Exactly how they form is debated, in part because they are so rare, but

one idea is that they result from special cases of differentiation within more

common magmas, or maybe an example of certain chemicals – the carbonates – separating

out in an unusual way.

Another unusual aspect of carbonatites is the minerals

associated with the dominant calcite. It’s common to get rare-earth compounds,

tantalum, thorium, titanium, and many other minerals that are unusual in high

concentrations in other settings. The Mountain Pass rare-earth deposit in

California, once the largest producer of rare earths in the world, is in a

Precambrian carbonatite. Rare earths are used in lots of modern technologies,

including turbines for wind energy, batteries in electric car motors, cell

phones, solar cells, and eyeglasses.

Rare earths are also produced from the Mt. Weld carbonatite

in Western Australia, but it’s more famous for its tantalum, an element that’s

vital in capacitors for cell phones, video games, and computers. Australia has

by far the greatest reserves of tantalum, but mining didn’t begin until 2011

and production is just now ramping up. The United States, which is 100%

dependent on imports for tantalum, imports most of it from Brazil, Rwanda,

China, and Kazakhstan.

Magnetite is a common associated mineral in carbonatites,

and at Magnet Cove, Arkansas, there’s enough to give the name to the place. It’s

also rich in titanium, often in the form of the mineral rutile, titanium dioxide.

When I was there on a geology field trip in 1969, I remember walking into the

Kimzey Calcite Quarry. It was like walking into a giant calcite crystal, with

gigantic cleavage faces the size of a person or bigger. We collected lots of cool

rutile and pyrite crystals.

More common economic minerals can be associated with

carbonatites as well. At one in South Africa the main products are copper and

vermiculite.

While I said earlier that carbonatites are really rare,

there are still a few dozen known. It’s possible that their rarity is a

reflection of the fact that calcite is much more easily eroded and dissolved

than the typical basaltic rocks that derive from most volcanoes, so they may

simply be poorly preserved.

—Richard I. Gibson

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Richard I. Gibson, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: Nights (LS 24 · TOP 10% what is this?)
Episode: Element of the Week
Pub date: 2019-11-22

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization



To mark 2019 as the year of the Periodic Table, RNZ Nights has teamed up with the MacDiarmid Institute to bring you Element of The Week. Tonight, Nadine van der Heijden, MacDiarmid Institute Postdoctoral Research Fellow introduces us to the element Thorium and the reason for tonight's sonic tonic dedicated to Thunder.

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from RNZ, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Notes: Thorium

Podcast: The Space Show

Episode: Dr. Robert Hargraves, Friday, 11-17-17

Pub date: 2017-11-18

Details: https://www.listennotes.com/e/1f71fa69585a41c5b11406fcee7afe6a/

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr David Livingston, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: The Fusion Podcast -
Episode: Fusion Podcast - Robert Steinhaus interview
Pub date: 2018-05-24

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

In 2008, Robert Steinhaus retired after 34 years working in nuclear research at the Lawrence Livermore National Labs. During his career, he worked on the U.S. nuclear weapons program and on magnetic mirrors.  Mr. Steinhaus has been advocating for fusion and fission concepts for several years, as part of the Thorium Energy Alliance and The Fusion Energy League.  In our interview we talk about his LLNL career and the links between fusion research and its connections to U.S. leadership in nuclear research.

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Matt Moynihan , which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: Goldstein on Gelt (LS 34 · TOP 5% what is this?)
Episode: Are Natural Energy Sources The Way Forward?
Pub date: 2016-12-22

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization



Kurt Cobb, author, journalist, and expert on energy and the environment, returns to Goldstein on Gelt to discuss the energy crisis. Are natural sources of energy, such as thorium and molten salt, effective alternatives to oil?

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Douglas Goldstein | CFP® | Profile Investment Services, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: The Fusion Podcast -
Episode: Fusion Podcast - Dr. Thomas Dolan interview
Pub date: 2018-05-21

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

Professor Thomas J. Dolan is author of “Fusion Research” (1982) and editor of “Magnetic Fusion Technology” (Springer, 2013). He served as head of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency, Physics Section. Dr. Dolan has worked at universities (Missouri, Illinois); national labs (LLNL, LANL, ORNL, INL); in industry (Phillips Petroleum); and in Canada, Taiwan, Russia, Austria, China, Japan, India, and Korea. His new book is “Molten Salt Reactors and Thorium Energy” (Elsevier Press, 2017). In our interview, we talk about the history of fusion research in America.

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Dr. Matt Moynihan , which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: The Atomic Show (LS 32 · TOP 5% what is this?)
Episode: Atomic Show #264 – Building momentum in advanced nuclear energy
Pub date: 2019-01-28

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

It's not glaringly obvious, but preparatory steps enabling a take off for advanced nuclear power systems are making measurable progress.

Enabling legislative acts have been passed by both the Senate and House and signed by the President, turning them into laws requiring actions.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is back to full strength and under a skilled, experienced chair.

Two of the Commissioners have both education and work experience as nuclear power engineers. A majority of the Commission has indicated that they have a better understanding of their legislated responsibility to take actions that provide "reasonable assurance of adequate protection."

Nuclear energy has been garnering bipartisan support in Congress as one of the few topics that can attract support from a variety of often contentious groups and individuals.

People who care deeply about clean air and water like the fact that nuclear energy can run inside sealed buildings and produces no air or water pollution.

People who care about the future for all of the world's children like developing a powerful technology that has three useful superfuels – uranium, thorium and plutonium. Taken together, those fuels provide an inexhaustible resource.

People who want the US to have "energy dominance" recognize that we will have more fuel to export if we consume less of it at home. Some even recognize that we can build powerful, friendly global relationships by engaging in cooperative efforts to empower the world with actinides.

There may even be some people in the traditional hydrocarbon supply economy who recognize that their skills, capital, and attention could be invested in an atomic future. They might realize they would have more long term success by building capability in atomic energy than expending their resources drilling ever deeper holes in ever more challenging locations with ever increasing opposition from people who have determined that the atmosphere doesn't need an ever increasing quantity of hydrocarbon residues.

On Sunday, Jan 27, 2019, I gathered a group of people who are paying close attention to the incremental developments that are adding up to make it possible to deploy new and improved atomic energy systems.

The panel included:

Meredith Angwin - Author of Campaigning for Clean Air, Voices from Vermont Yankee, and an upcoming book titled Shorting the Grid.

Steve Aplin - blogger at Canadian Energy Issues

Dr. Ben Heard - founder and director at Bright New World

Jessica Lovering - Director of Energy at the Breakthrough Institute


The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Rod Adams - Atomic Insights, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: Energy Cast (LS 33 · TOP 5% what is this?)
Episode: 33 | Fissile Fuel | Lightbridge Corp.
Pub date: 2018-04-02

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization



We discuss a more efficient and safe nuclear fuel, as well as the future of waste and thorium with Lightbridge Corp. For pictures and additional info, visit http://www.energy-cast.com/33-lightbridge.html

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Jay Dauenhauer, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: 5 Live Science Podcast (LS 52 · TOP 0.5% what is this?)
Episode: Dr Karl
Pub date: 2018-11-08

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium

Get Podcast Transcript →
powered by Listen411 - fast audio-to-text and summarization

DR KARL discusses whether human saliva is a good cleaning agent? Also, are perpetual motion vehicles a realistic possibility and is thorium a cleaner alternative to nuclear power?

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC Radio 5 Live, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.

Podcast: Peter Hill Explains
Episode: Chinese Thorium Nuclear Reactor
Pub date: 2018-07-17

Notes from Listening Post:

Thorium



Thinking big, thinking vague, thinking early. A thought bubble on powering Indonesia with power sources of the future

http://lessonpeer.com/drhillteach/Chinese%20Thorium%20Nuclear%20Reactor.mp4

The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Peter Hill, which is the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Listen Notes, Inc.