Fourteen years of no-new-nuke-orders later, uranium mining's drop in popularity came with the post-Cold War decision to buy Soviet weapons and turn them into reactor-grade fuel.

FORBES: Yellowcake Fever

In a major and welcomed development, Russia announced that it will close its last weapons-grade plutonium production reactor.

WHITEHOUSE: Nuclear Security Summit: Presidential Press Conference

That reactor type is not ideal for producing weapons-grade plutonium, but all reactors produce plutonium that could be used in a nuclear explosion.

BBC: Yongbyon restart: North Korea ramps up nuclear tension

For uranium to work in a nuclear reactor it must be enriched to contain 2-3% uranium-235 while weapons-grade uranium must contain 90% or more uranium-235.

BBC: Iran installing new Natanz centrifuges, says IAEA

What if we could build a nuclear reactor that offered no possibility of a meltdown, generated its power inexpensively, created no weapons-grade by-products, and burnt up existing high-level waste as well as old nuclear weapon stockpiles?

FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.