LFTRs (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors) use thorium instead of uranium, and they cost much less to build than what we use now. Thorium is cheaper & much more abundant. We have a huge stock pile of it in the USA now. LFTRs can't melt down, can't blow up, and no cooling water is needed. Those nuclear reactors in Japan would have been no problem, after the tsumani, if they were LFTRs. Small LFTRs can be built so long transmission lines are not necessary. We could eventually convert our coal & nuclear electric plants into LFTRs.
The problem is that most people don't know about LFTRs so they are not demanding them. Also what we have in place now is well understood and making money for lots of people so there will be resistance to investing in LFTRs.
A LFTR ran at Oak Ridge National Laboratories in Tennessee for four years during the 1960's so they were invented in the USA. The Chinese are building one now, and other countries have committed to building them too. Let's get them going in the good old USA. We have to keep telling our Politicians that we demand LFTRs here and we have to the word out about them.
Again, see: See
http://thoriumenergyalliance.com/
