Hope for Thorium Based Power?

Senators Harry Reid and Orrin Hatch introduced the Thorium Energy Independence and Security Act of 2008 on the 2nd of October.

http://newsblaze.com/story/2008100213330200003.pnw/topstory.html

This would clear some of the hurdles in place with the DOE and the NRC that would prevent advanced fission reactors like the LFTR from being built in the US. It would also mean that the thousands of tons worth of surplus thorium that the US has buried in the southwest would finally have a use. Other than the surplus, the US has a very high concentration of minerals that could be mined for thorium ore in Lehmi Pass, Idaho.

If this bill passes, and I hope it does, it would mean that America's energy policy would have some direction after all. Wind and solar power are not going to cut it, and coal has long overstayed its welcome. As an added bonus, the fission byproducts that result from a thorium fission reacton are practically useless for making nuclear warheads out of.