This site may earn affiliate commissions from the links on this page. Terms of use.

thorium

Nuclear power was headed for something of a resurgence a few years back, but then the 2022 meltdown at Japan'south Fukushima reactor happened. Governments and investors around the globe got cold feet, but there's now renewed interest in a blazon of nuclear power that's potentially much safer. A team from the Nuclear Enquiry and Consultancy Group (NRG) kingdom of the netherlands has built the get-go molten table salt reactor powered past thorium in decades.

In that location are several basic facts of nuclear power that have made it a tough sell around the earth. For ane, the uranium needed for nuclear power plants is rare and expensive. The uranium used in ability plants tin likewise be turned into weapons-grade material, requiring tight regulation. The other waste matter byproducts of nuclear energy are less useful, merely withal extremely unsafe. We don't even know what to do with all that waste notwithstanding. Lastly, a nuclear ability plant, no matter how well designed, could experience meltdown under certain circumstances.

You need different fissile material if yous're going to change any of that, and now nosotros come up to thorium (atomic number 90). Different uranium, thorium is abundant, and it's non nearly as unsafe. Enrichment is not necessary, and thus it's extremely difficult to create nuclear weapons with a thorium-based reactor. About chiefly, meltdowns aren't possible with thorium reactors because the reaction is not self-sustaining.

That last prophylactic advantage is also the principal drawback of thorium. Yous need a little uranium and a neutron source to get the reaction kickstarted. Oak Ridge National Laboratory ran molten table salt thorium reactor experiments from the 1960s until 1976. Now, the European squad is giving it another shot.

thorium salt

Pure thorium common salt being loaded into a sample container.

When bombarded by neutrons, thorium becomes radioactive uranium-233, which is shorter-lived and less dangerous than the uranium-235 used in conventional reactors. The molten salt design being adult at NRG is known as the Table salt Irradiation Experiment (SALIENT). This radioactive slurry could potentially attain very high temperatures, which translates to a lot of free energy generation. However, the molten salt isn't just the fuel; it'due south the coolant equally well.

There are still several problems that need solving before NRG's thorium reactor designs will be scaled upwards to industrial levels. While the waste is safer, scientists still need to effigy out how much of it at that place will be and what can exist done with it. The environment inside a molten salt reactor is besides extremely corrosive. And then, some creative materials might be needed. If it works, we could generate more than power without pumping more carbon into the atmosphere — a win for everyone.

Now read: How does nuclear energy piece of work?