You must have not read the articles, I am not suprised. Thorium has a higher yield than Uranium which means it is more efficient. Thorium is easier to cool down, it is all about the science,yo. Here is the thing that bugs most elected officials about Thorium; it is readily avalaible everywhere, which means the oil companies/Uranium companies will never let it happen.
I realize thats a common idea. Similar to the carburetor that gets a car 300 miles a gallon. "They" won't let it be sold.
There are so few ongoing nuke plant projects in this country I doubt there would need to be any conspiracy to stop thorium. But I can't see anyone trying to stop it. Why would GE or a company that makes nuclear technology want to stop thorium? Why would their potential customers, like Duke Power or Progress Energy, won't to stop it? Why would the companies who mine uranium not also want to mine thorium? Oil companies? I don't think oil companies think they are in competition with nuclear power. At least in this country, we don't have a lot of power plants that run off of oil. Maybe 17%? And I bet those are mostly backups.