The Norwegian angry God Thor gave name to the thing that semes likes the answer to the worlds energy problem. As surprising that is … even more surprising is it that the energy is not harvested.
The thorium reactor is 90 times more effective than a conventional atom reactor (per amount solid), and at the same time very safe. It has to be kept alive, whereas the an conventional reactor needs to be kept from blowing up. An easy choice.
There is also plenty of thorium, and the waste is far less harmful than conventional waste. It can also not be used to make nuclear arms.
See the interesting TED-talk here:
Read more about thorium here, on wikipedia and on the website of the Thorium Foundation.