You still need to start with Uranium 235 in a Thorium breeder reactor. The Thorium is not fissionable in and of itself, but when bombarded with neutrons it captures neutrons and goes to Uranium 233 which IS fissionable, and, like Uranium 235, is critical on delayed neutrons ... that is, neutrons released from the decay of fission products. 99+% of the neutrons from one generation to the next are prompt, that is, produced directly from nuclear fission, but, that there is a significant fraction of a percent of the neutrons that are delayed effectively slows down a generation time of neutrons to about 57 seconds, making a Uranium fueled reactor far more controllable than attempting to make a Plutonium fueled reactor, which is critical on prompt neutrons. The advantage of a Thorium breeder ... separating out U233 from Thorium is far easier than separating out U235 from U238, because it can be done chemically. The result is virtually pure U233, which can then fuel a reactor that is far closer in design to a Navy nuclear power plant, which requires highly enriched fuel. The Navy design allows for extreme transients. Furthermore, it can stay operational inspite of various casualty conditions such as a steam leak or loss of a feed water pump etc... there is virtually nothing that could happen to the steam plant side that would cause an automatic shutdown of the reactor. If the Japanese nuclear plants were similar to the Navy design, the worst outcome would have been an automatic shutdown of the reactor (Reactor SCRAM, where the control rods go into the core both on gravity and spring loading), huge valves isolating the coolant loops from the reactor would have gone shut, and emergency cooling, which, in a Navy plant is based upon NATURAL CONVECTION, would have kicked in ... the plant would be in a safe condition. If such a design were used in a civillian power plant, there would be other events such as the main steam root valves going to the turbines would have gone shut and possibly the steam stops, and breakers would have opened up as well, isolating the generator from the transformer bank. The plant would not be operational, but it would have put itself in a safe condition. There is no reason that a civillian plant can't be designed that way, especially considering the possibility of using Thorium in a breeder to produce U233.
WHY IS THIS AND WHAT IS THE PLAN??????????????????????????????
Pure speculation, based on all that I have read on the web, seen in mainstream media, etc... first, it is a given that the powers that be want centralized control over power generation, there are many vested interests that would be hurt if there were all of a sudden extremely economical decentralized power production, with megawatt hours for less than 1 US Dollar at its current value. Furthermore, there seems to be a plan to keep energy prices high ... by limiting coal, by insisting upon only the highest quality lowest sulfer antracite coal for power plants (even tho the tech exists to use the sulfur as a byproduct these days, a modern coal plant doesn't put out sulfur dioxide), by regulating the nuclear industry to death, by not allowing newer and safer designs of reactor plants, by not funding EFFECTIVE research into fusion (the same old non workable test plants get the funding) etc, etc. Solar and wind are limited, geothermal will take some political will ... for instance, the magma chamber under the super volcano caldera at Yellowstone could supply all of the power needed from the tip of Argentina to northern Canada if it were developed ... and it would be a means of removing energy from a potentially threatening super volcano at the same time. Of course, that would never happen. Anyways, the idea is to create demand ... the answer will be something that requires big government, internationalism, and centralize control ... Helium 3 to Helium 4 fusion, the Helium 3 being plentiful on Luna (Earth's moon) which creates an excuse for the next phase of space development.
Why go that route???? Centralized control, the same big money interests will keep on making big money while the planet moves away from petroleum, an excuse for high tech that nevertheless keeps people dependent upon the system, and space exploration under the control of big govt./big corporations. IF there is something to the whole question of exopolitics, that is, an ongoing, top secret progam with various races of ET's ... this is a route that will allow us to eventually "discover" them on their home planets, which would be the "acceptable truth" to tell humanity.
Pete