Thorium

High thorium concentration in US, in states NV, UT, AZ, CO, KS, WY

[-]

"Thorium is three to five times more abundant than uranium in the earth's crust.. produces less radiotoxicity than the U02 because it produces fewer amounts of actinides, reducing the radiotoxicity of long life nuclear waste. Th02 has higher corrosion resistance than U02, besides being chemically stable due to their low water solubility. The burning of Pu in a reactor based in thorium also decreases the inventories of Pu from the current fuel cycles, resulting in lower risks of material diversion for use in nuclear weapons"

PDF

Adam Taggart: "If thorium is so much better than uranium, why did the U.S. abandon thorium in the 1960s–70s why did we shutter this thing in in the 70s? Why did we go down the uranium path and not the thorium path?'"

Sorensen: "I spent years finding the answer to that myself. I ended up writing my thesis at the University of Tennessee on the very question. The really short answer is, very early on, our priority was weapons and thorium was not a path to weapons... And so much work had been done on uranium and plutonium versus thorium that it was more ready to be demonstrated. And so the efforts of the Nixon and Carter and Reagan administrations went into what was called the Clinch River Breeder Reactor around uranium, plutonium and thorium was shelved. That was a bad move. That was a mistake. We really should have been continuing the work of Dr. Weinberg at at Oakidge and and pushing the thorium direction. He correctly foresaw the problems that we would run into with the uranium approach in every facet, both in safety and in ultimate fuel utilization. And he would have not been one bit surprised to be here in 2025 with us right now going 'I could have told you you'd be in this problem way back when because you didn't take the the thorium direction'."

Taggart: "So okay so uranium essentially is a less efficient fuel. it has more safety issues.. but it offered the opportunity for weaponization and I'm guessing because of the interest of the military-industrial complex, [they] really pushed for that and then once we had enough momentum around that technology it just became easier to continue that momentum than to try to go back to the drawing board with thorium"

[-]

SCMP: "China sets launch date for world’s first thorium molten salt nuclear power station.. Construction of a molten salt nuclear power plant that uses thorium as fuel instead of uranium is set to begin in the Gobi Desert.. The reactor does not need water for cooling because it uses liquid salt and carbon dioxide to transfer heat and generate electricity.

Using thorium as its primary fuel, it means worries over a potential shortage of uranium – the usual fuel used in nuclear reactors – are allayed, as thorium is more abundant than uranium. According to some scientists’ estimates, China has enough thorium reserves to meet its energy needs for 20,000 years. The reactor is scheduled to be completed and operational in 2029, generating heat at a maximum power of 60 megawatts.

Part of the thermal energy will drive a 10MW electric power unit, and the rest will produce hydrogen by splitting water molecules at high temperature"

#Thorium #Whistler

[-]

#Thorium #SH

[-]

Thorium Reserves per Country

"China’s Survey Estimates That a One-Million-Ton Deposit of Thorium Could Produce Limitless Energy"

Live Science: "[04/20] For the first time ever, scientists in China have refueled an experimental nuclear reactor without shutting it down — a significant advance in weaning the world off fossil fuels and onto more efficient, low-carbon energy sources.. The breakthrough, achieved using a prototype molten-salt design which runs on liquid thorium instead of uranium, means that China "now leads the global frontier" in nuclear innovation, the project's lead scientist, Xu Hongjie, said during an April 8 meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Thorium reactors were first developed in the 1950s in the U.S., before it went all-in on uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Following this decision, this early research was later declassified, and the Chinese researchers made use of it for the current project."

Lead Scientist Xu Hongjie: "Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance"

#Thorium #Friedberg

[-]

#CopenhagenAtomics

"The Solution to Future Energy Demand: THORIUM Reactors"

[-]