On Feb 12, 10:58*am, Wayne.B wrote:
This time it's thorium in conjunction with a laser and a steam
turbine. * *Not exactly right around the corner unfortunately but the
potential is very interesting:

"A 250-kilowatt unit (equivalent to about 335 horsepower) weighing
about 500 pounds would be small and light enough to put under the hood
of a car, Stevens claims. And because a gram of thorium has the
equivalent potential energy content of 7,500 gallons of gasoline, LPS
calculates that using just 8 grams of thorium in the unit could power
an average car for 5,000 hours, or about 300,000 miles of normal
driving."

More he

http://www.txchnologist.com/2011/the-thorium-laser-the-completely-pla...

It's good to know that there are people thinking way out of the box on
ideas like this. *Imagine being able to power your boat for 5,000
hours on 8 grams of fuel.

Yes, thinking outside the box is what's necessary.Though it's
efficiency have greatly improved in the last 130 years, I'm really
surprised that the internal combustion engine has really lasted this
long.