Thorium power
About
Nuclear power derived from thorium is apparently both safer and more potent than conventional (uranium) nuclear power. Despite this, there are no thorium nuclear power plants currently in operation.
The story is that during the cold war, when the United States was first investigating nuclear power, they had a choice between thorium and uranium. Uranium produces plutonium, which is highly toxic but can be used for nuclear weapons, as a byproduct. This concern apparently trumped both safety and efficiency, so the US put all their development resources into uranium and plutonium-fueled nuclear, leading to the nuclear power plants we have today.
The thorium fuel cycle was discovered by Glenn Seaborg. Briefly, when thorium is irradiated by neutrons, it is transmuted to protactinium-233, which decays into uranium-233, which can then be used in a fission reactor to produce energy.
Many thorium advocates also promote the molten salt reactor (MSR), a generation IV thermal spectrum (slow neutron) nuclear reactor design for its safety and efficiency.
As of 2010, a Virginia-based company called Lightbridge has designed a nuclear fuel assembly designed for existing reactors of a particular type ("light water") but using thorium as its primary fuel. In January 2011, the Chinese Academy of Sciences formally announced a research project on thorium-fueled molten salt reactors. In April 2011, thorium advocate and former NASA engineer Kirk Sorensen founded Flibe Energy to design and construct a variant of the MSR called liquid fluoride thorium reactor, or LFTR.
Links
to file
- 2010-10-20 The Truth About Thorium and Nuclear Power