[Meta] [RFC] Fenspace 2022, take 2

[Ace Dreamer]

How about this:

Thorium reactors came to mostly replace uranium reactors for a number of practical reasons. One, thorium is cheaper, Two, the reactor will enrich its own fuel from naturally mined thorium, without need for separate enrichment and processing, Three, the reactor 'burns' nuclear waste so it become safe in decades rather than millennium. Oh, and you don't have to keep hosting visits from nuclear weapons inspectors. [grin]

It was also found that thorium reactors could directly drive (safe) 'cosmic energy' taps which increased their effective power output by orders of magnitude (at least x100), whereas uranium reactors somehow interfered with this process. However, this tapping process only worked given access to a lot of vacuum, so was useless for planetary installations with an atmosphere. Uranium reactors also seemed to interfere with certain varieties of space drive, meaning their efficiency significantly decreased, something only discovered when researchers started to take a close look at the figures.

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"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind