There is a much better way to generate nuclear energy, says Patrick Cox. Thorium is more efficient, more abundant and less hazardous than uranium. Patrick says it is government subsidies and regulations are blocking the widespread use of thorium. But if Obama removes these barriers, it could become the ultimate alternative energy.

It was a rare winning session across the board during Wednesday trading on the Canadian markets. For the tale of the tape, the TSX Exchange rallied 1.44%, while the TSX Gold Index surged 6.2% and the TSX Venture Exchange, Canada’s largest junior exploration bourse, added 1.03% with the declining issuers beating out the advancers by a 425 to 414 margin on volume of 114 million shares traded.

In the energy market Wednesday, crude for September delivery shot higher for a change, closing at $116.00/barrel, up $2.99. September reformulated gasoline rose 8.9 cents, to $2.9323/gallon.

Investors are lining up to grab their share – you can be one of them if you act fast enough.

Nuclear energy is back on the agenda in Britain – and uranium stocks will feel the benefit. The BBC reports that up to 14 new power plants could be commissioned, while 23 existing plants are to be replaced.

In Taipan Daily, Irwin Greenstein examines another country looking to uranium as a source of clean energy, with potentially significant implications for the market:

China’s nuclear power companies have ambitious export plans, but massive domestic expansion may stop them from going global for up to a decade, according to Thomson Reuters:

A $1 billion deal signed last week with Russia to build and supply a uranium enrichment plant in China was another step towards civilian nuclear independence, less than two decades after its first nuclear generator came on line.

Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs made the term “BRICs” famous in a 2003 research report.

Adventure holidays are the usual line for one of Africa’s tiniest countries — Gambia. For one Brit, however, Gambia is proving an adventure too far.

China is already the world leader in producing solar cells – now it wants to make a grab other sectors of the alternative energy market.

“Prepare for the onslaught of relatively inexpensive Chinese turbines,” said Steve Sawyer, head of the Global Wind Energy Council, in Wired magazine.

In 2007, China became the world’s number one producer of photo-voltaic cells, holding 35% of the market. Sawyer reckons that China will make enough equipment to generate 10 gigawatts of power annually by 2010 — more than half the capacity that the whole world installed in 2007.

Crude oil is grabbing the headlines but it’s coal and uranium that together provide nearly half the world’s power.