Re: Nuclear Power: Unsafe, Uneconomical, Unsustainable

Bill, essentially you are correct. But the Thorium provides power
when combined with the uranium "seed"...thus one uses far less uranium
(by a very large factor, apparently) which is why the Indians are so
interested in it and have been running a Thorium based reaction for
years. In fact, all the previous High Temperature Gas Reactors (Pebble
bed or otherwise) have used Thorium as the basis of their fuel.

The real gain is two things:
1. Resulting radioactive materials are useless for developing nuclear
weapons and
2. Because one combines Thorium with uranium, it can be combined with
Plutonium to 'burn up' this substance. The reactors in Russia that are
going on line to burn up weapons plutonium are all Thorium based
reactors.

David

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Relevant Pages

  • Re: Increasing energy costs
    ... No more war over oil. ... uranium at $25,000/kg would only increase the cost of electricity by 1 ... Thorium is everywhere, and thorium is also relatively cheap plus a ... whole lot safer than uranium. ...
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  • Re: Iran to Begin Enriching Uranium for Nuclear Weapons
    ... > First I've heard of using thorium. ... > apparently can be mined much like uranium. ... > get all the neutrons to bombard it with to make U233. ... A blanket around the core/other component of the fuel rod is ...
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  • Re: Energy Solution
    ... only ~2-3% of the Uranium. ... But a related cycle can "burn" the depleted ... Apparently a Thorium reactor doesn't generate neutron poisons... ...
    (sci.physics.relativity)
  • Re: Nuclear Power: Unsafe, Uneconomical, Unsustainable
    ... They can use almost any fuel, ... including Thorium, which is non-weapons grade fuel, and are built ... Clearly,thorium itself is not fissile,but it can be breeded to uranium 233 ... Pebble beds could be good reactors to use thorium ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: Nuclear Power
    ... the thorium design 'breeds' fissile material from the ... But doesn't the fuel have to be re-processed? ... any uranium reserves of their own. ... safest and useful is liquid salt cooled reactors using throium. ...
    (sci.energy)