"Thorium" scam widely linked, hits Slashdot

[Slashdot] 8 Grams of Thorium Could Replace Gasoline In Cars

Some devious misanthrope has latched onto the thorium hype for his own personal scam. Dr. (allegedly) Charles Stevens claims to be developing a thorium-powered-car, whose nature is impossible to pin down beneath the incoherent mismash of idiotic technobable... i.e.:

However, the use of thorium is controversial because, as with uranium, it is used as a nuclear power source. Indeed, the internal heat of the Earth largely is attributed to the presence of thorium and uranium.

The key to the system developed by inventor Charles Stevens, CEO and chairman of Connecticut-based Laser Power Systems, is that when silvery metal thorium is heated by an external source, it becomes so dense its molecules give off considerable heat.

Small blocks of thorium generate heat surges that are configured as a thorium-based laser, Stevens tells Ward’s. These create steam from water within mini-turbines, generating electricity to drive a car.

The key to the system developed by inventor Charles Stevens, CEO and chairman of Connecticut-based Laser Power Systems, is that when silvery metal thorium is heated by an external source, it becomes so dense its molecules give off considerable heat.

Natural thorium has little radioactivity, Stevens says. What isotopes there are could be blocked by aluminum foil, so the power unit’s 3-in. (7.6-cm) thick stainless-steel box should do the trick.

Stevens has worked out you’d require a 227kg, 250MW thorium engine in order to power a typical road car. Within that system 1 gram of thorium produces the equivalent of 7,500 gallons of gasoline. So if you fit the Thorium engine with 8 grams of Thorium, it will run the vehicle for its entire lifetime without needing to be refueled while all the time not producing any emissions. The engine lasts so long in fact, that it could be taken from one vehicle and used in another as and when they wear out.

Stevens agrees, emphasizing his system is “subcritical.” This means no nuclear reaction occurs within the thorium. It remains in the same state and is not turned into uranium 233, which happens only if thorium is sufficiently super-heated to generate a fission reaction. “It’s very safe,” he says.

http://wardsauto.com/ar/thorium_power_car_110811/

Please don't subject yourself of the anguish of trying to interpret this gibberish! He alternately describes this as not a fission reaction (although he doesn't appear know to what fission is, describing it as ²³²Th --> ²³³U...), but claims energy densities which strictly apply to fission reactions only. Claims thorium "molecules" [sic] give off heat when they become "dense". Claims there is lasing involved somewhere.

The scammer has incorporated himself as "Laser Power Systems, LLC." His previous startup, "Helyxzion, LLC", was in genomics.

[LinkedIn] Charles Stevens

Laser Power Systems, LLC

Helyxzion, LLC