In the discussions about it here the subject of thorium reactors comes up.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
For it would open up the possibility of processing thorium heavy ores of those metals.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
Rival ideas withered, among them the thorium liquid-fuel reactor, powered by molten fluoride salt containing thorium.
America has already mined enough Thorium to power the entire country for 400 years.
They run on Thorium, a mildly radioactive material more common than tin and found all over the world.
Alternatively, U-233 can be bred from thorium in a blanket, the U-233 separated, and then fed into the core.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
The most common source of thorium is the rare earth phosphate mineral, monazite.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
Idaho also boasts a large vein deposit of thorium and rare earth metals.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
Thorium can be used as a nuclear fuel through breeding to fissile uranium-233.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
Quite bizarrely thorium reactors would make electronics like smartphones a little bit cheaper.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
And thorium reactors are indeed a very good idea and they do work.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
Nobody knows if thorium reactors can compete on price with coal and gas.
We can go to Thorium, we can go to the new Westinghouse designers, we can go to the GE designs.
FORBES: John Mauldin And The Compromise To Save The Republic
However, if thorium power stations ever started to be used then there would be an end market for that thorium.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
So we have more complex processes and more waste at beginning of the Thorium fuel cycle with chemically toxic metals.
The fuel cannot melt down in a thorium reactor because it is already molten, and reactions slow down as it cools.
Lightbridge Corporation, a pioneering nuclear-energy start-up company based in McLean, VA, is developing the Radkowsky Thorium Reactor in collaboration with Russian researchers.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
Modular nuclear reactors take uranium, or in some cases thorium, and produce steam for turbines via heat generated in fission reactions.
FORBES: Mini-Nukes Back From Grave As Fluor Invests In NuScale Power
What makes this incredible reactor so different is its fuel source: thorium.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
And one of the biggest bugbears for the mining industry is thorium.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
Thorium is bred into 233Uranium inside the reactor, but only enough is made to keep the LFTR running, so no stockpiling occurs.
Now is the time to start to find out about thorium's potential.
There is the final matter of the exact means for obtaining energy from thorium, for example using very large accelerator driven systems (ADS).
In view of the radioactive nature of thorium, a hazard is posed from waste produced in the processing of rare earth oxides, which contains it.
If we did start to use the thorium nuclear cycle in reactors one group of beneficiaries would be those who use tantalum, niobium, rare earths and so on.
FORBES: An Odd Thought: Thorium Reactors Would Make Tantalum And Rare Earths Cheaper
The conversion is not direct, and involves the initial formation of thorium-233, which decays rapidly to protactinium-233, and then to uranium-233 over a period of about a month.
Thorium reactors still produce fissile Uranium by transmutation of Thorium.
Thorium reactors are only a slight improvement over current technology.
The irradiated fuel can then be unloaded from the reactor, the U-233 separated from the thorium, and fed back into another reactor as part of a closed fuel cycle.
FORBES: Is Thorium the Biggest Energy Breakthrough Since Fire? Possibly.
Deep underneath your feet is a hellish stone soup, kept hot by a torrent of radiation from poisonous isotopes of uranium, thorium and potassium in the earth's superheated mantle.
应用推荐