(guest post by Jon Morrow)

From time to time there appear in the public domain stories and advertisements about revolutionary consumer products and their technical underpinnings. These communications make outlandish, but very exciting, claims. Many of these involve promises of huge dollar savings to the consumer. These opportunistic authors use the interesting technique of attaching their literally incredible claims to credible science. The incredible is pulled along by the coattails of the credible. If such stories and theories are not addressed by rational scientific analysis, the incredible can taint what has been a very credible message about a very credible technology.

Recently, stories have appeared touting the feasibility of the Thorium Powered Car, and about the existence and utility of “Thorium Plasma batteries.” The information in these stories is false.

While the Thorium powered Cadillac car is wickedly cool looking, and although Thorium technology has a bright future for production of electricity and other benefits as set forth elsewhere on this Energy From Thorium website, Thorium energy technology cannot be used as an individual unit to power a car, for a multitude of reasons.

The Energy From Thorium Foundation does not, in even the remotest sense, support the basis of these alleged automobile power technologies.

The concept of a thorium powered car has many, many, problems.

Here is a very good video that thoroughly examines the problems with the thorium car. (Warning adult language used)



The Thorium powered Cadillac concept car is not even the first nuclear powered concept car by a big three auto manufacturer.



Thorium Plasma Batteries proponents have violated the scientific method at every turn. Researchers, and even journalists, usually do a “review of the literature” before embarking on new research, or writing a news piece. In the case of a notional Thorium Plasma Battery, a review of the literature is a very difficult task, because no plans can be found for these batteries. The information used in these proponent articles consists merely of interrelated links among scientifically valueless websites. See,

Researchers, readers, and other interested parties cannot even ask the people who allegedly designed and/or built such batteries in the first place, because they are all dead. I can find no credible websites discussing this supposed technology, and many people are being duped into believing the Thorium Plasma Battery exists, that its technology is actually real. In clear violation of the scientific method, none of the assertions made by the proponents can be duplicated or verified.

The concept of a Thorium Plasma battery is not new. It is a spinoff of 1990’s stories of the water powered car and of the 100 mpg carburetor. I know something about this hoax because it originated in Ohio, the home of the Energy From Thorium Foundation. It was concocted by anti-capitalist-leaning groups with the apparent purpose of influencing Americans against free market capitalism. The stories and ads demonized big business, blaming the auto manufacturers and the petroleum companies for “hiding” technology which would allegedly hurt their businesses. A review of the above websites demonstrates that their authors believe the same concerning “suppression” of a supposedly viable Thorium powered car and Thorium Plasma battery technology: it would harm the petroleum industry, so it was bought up by the industry and then hidden.

A lesson to be learned: We should not be so eager to believe everything we see on the internet.

Stanley Meyer of Columbus, Ohio and his water fuel cell were proved to be fraudulent http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley_Meyer’s_water_fuel_cell. Mr. Meyer died in 1998.

And of course we all hope that Mario is still alive! (Caution: Very Funny!)

