The USA went the Uranium path because the output contains fissionable material - i.e., you can make bombs. The Thorium path doesn't allow that, the waste is radioactive for hundreds, not hundreds of thousands of years, and it is not 'self starting', but needs an 'igniter', either a uranium/thorium mis, or a particle accelerator, which when switched off shuts it all down, i.e., no runaway, no meltdown.

On tonight's Catalyst, but sadly not on their web page currently, was a report about this.

It talked about localised 50 megawatt plants, being suitable for communities, or desalination plants. The plants also can burn all teh current warhead material, removing it from the reach of terrorists, and warmongers.

Australia has much of the world's thorium, BTW... :-)