Thorium nuclear electricity

[dichotomy]

What do people here think of thorium’s chances of becoming a mainstream energy source? Is it the most viable clean, green and safe mass electricity producer of the future? Abundant? Efficient? Cost effective? Any other thoughts about it?

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KAMINI

 

http://www.cosmosmagazine.com/node/348

 

http://www.thoriumpowerinc.com/

 

http://www.power-technology.com/features/feature1141/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subcritical_reactor#Technical_challenges

 

Will the god of thunder rise to our environmental rescue?

[insane_alien]

ask YT, nuclear boyscout mkIIb

[Severian]

I think it is quite impressive. There are no problems with safety or nuclear proliferation either, since the reaction is not self sustaining.

[Mr Skeptic]

Seems like a good idea. We've got to do something about coal, and not everyone has uranium. I'm not sure I understand why it is not considered a weapons risk. Thorium itself is not fissile, but Thorium 232 absorbs a neutron decaying twice into U233, which is fissile. Since Th and U are different elements, it would not be so hard to separate them. Is U233 not usable for weapons, or is it simply destroyed as quickly as it is created?

[swansont]

Seems like a good idea. We've got to do something about coal, and not everyone has uranium. I'm not sure I understand why it is not considered a weapons risk. Thorium itself is not fissile, but Thorium 232 absorbs a neutron decaying twice into U233, which is fissile. Since Th and U are different elements, it would not be so hard to separate them. Is U233 not usable for weapons, or is it simply destroyed as quickly as it is created?

 

You also produce U-232, which decays fairly quickly, along with its daughters in the decay chain, and some of these decays have gammas associated with them. This makes the material more difficult to handle, and would tend to mitigate proliferation. Also, some proposals also have U-238 mixed in with the Th, which means you would also have to separate that isotope out to get bomb-grade material.