On Sat, 17 Feb 2018 17:42:21 +0000, Tim+ wrote:

Andy Burns wrote:

AFAIK "rare" earths aren't especially rare, just that nowadays only
China seems to bother mining them,


I think its more a case of €œChina being one of the very few countries
prepared to accept the horrendous environmental cost of refining€�.


Which could, assuming Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) technology becomes the
de-facto standard for nuclear power station design to tide us over the
next half century or longer that it'll take for the dream of "Cheap
Pollution Free Nuclear Fusion Power" to finally be realised, end the
current fossil fuelled environmental problems resulting from the use of
coal fired power stations.

Whatever we do to power our high energy western lifestyle, there's
always going to be a 'Pollution Problem'. Putting aside the issue of
'Nuclear Accidents', nuclear power by necessity, pollutes the environment
far less than conventional coal fired plants do in regard of radioactive
isotope emissions.

The issue of 'Nuclear Waste' remains addressable even if it means simply
locking it up and throwing away the key. Inherently safer LFTR based MSR
technology can even help burn up the most lethally radioactive nuclear
waste products to mitigate the problem of nuclear waste storage/disposal.
On balance, China's interest in mining for rare earth elements (and the
Thorium tailings) could well prove to be the lesser of two evils
regarding the issue of planetwide pollution.

--
Johnny B Good