We have Hyman G. Rickover, Admiral in the US Navy to thank for steering nuclear energy research away from thorium to uranium.
He very much wanted the Navy to be in command of nuclear wessels carrying nuclear missiles.
If I can remember correctly from research in US energy policy history in college, the US had sunk about 10 years into thorium reactor research when Hyman came along.
Seems rather important to not ignore the violence monopoly. Quit paying it too much serious attention for too long and it gets chippy.
Let’s hope this is PTSD from a generation that was forced to go through hell, often for no reason, and it can normalize out. So long as we live long enough to test that hypothesis.
On the upside, the Navy has never had a nuclear accident. We’ve proven it’s doable.