Could Thorium Revamp Nuclear Energy?

Thorium itself isn't a nuclear fuel, but in combination with other materials, it might power the nuclear reactors of the future. Learn why in this episode of BrainStuff, based on this article: https://science.howstuffworks.com/thorium.htm

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to brain Stuff. Production of I Heart Radio Hey
brain Stuff Lauren Volga bam here. As human driven climate
change makes our planet less pleasant to live on, nuclear
power is getting more attention. A solar and wind energy
can help cut greenhouse gas emissions too, But if a
solution can be found to climate change, nuclear power is

(00:25):
probably going to be part of it. Although nuclear power
doesn't produce the climate altering gases that create a problem
with other sources of electricity, it does carry with it
certain risks for starters. Disposing of radioactive waste from nuclear
power plants presents a difficult problem, and what to do
with such dangerous byproducts. Also, what happens if the core

(00:48):
melts down and creates an environmental catastrophe as happened in Chernobyl, Ukraine.
In there are other concerns as well, but given our
current energy predicament, there are enty of reasons to keep
plugging away and making nuclear power safer. The nuclear reactors
are run by fission, a nuclear chain reaction in which

(01:10):
adams split to produce energy, or, in the case of
nuclear bombs, a massive explosion. For the article this episode
is based on, has to Fork spoken by email with
Steve Kron, a professor in the Department of Civil and
Environmental Engineering at Vanderbilt University. He said approximately four hundred
and fifty nuclear reactors are an operation worldwide, and they

(01:32):
all need fuel. He noted that for the most part,
these reactors operate on uranium two thirty five, and the
nations that partially recycle the fuel France, Russia, and a
few other countries combine it with recycled plutonium two thirty
nine to make what's called mixed oxide fuel. Plutonium is

(01:52):
a byproduct of used fuel from a nuclear reactor, and
it's cool that it can help recycle uranium. However, it's
highly toxic and is the most frequently used material for
nuclear weapons, which is one reason why scientists have continued
to explore other options, which brings us to thorium. Thorium

(02:13):
is an element that was discovered in eight and named
after Thorpe, the Norse god of thunder, and some scientists
think that it's the answer to our nuclear power problems.
Thorium is a slightly radioactive, relatively abundant metal, about as
abundant as tin and more abundant than uranium. It's also widespread,
with particular concentrations in India, Turkey, Brazil, the United States,

(02:36):
and Egypt. But it is important to note that thorium
isn't a fuel like uranium. The difference is that uranium
is fissile, meaning that it produces a sustainable chain reaction
if you can get enough uranium in one spot at
one time. Thorium, on the other hand, is not fissile.
It's what scientists call fertile, meaning that if you bombard

(02:59):
the thorium with neutrons essentially jump started in a reactor
fueled with material like uranium, it can transmute into a
uranium isotope uranium two thirty three, which is fissile and
suitable for creating power. Thorium was used in some of
the earliest nuclear physics experiments. Marie Curry and Ernest Rutherford

(03:19):
both worked with it. Uranium and plutonium became more heavily
associated with nuclear processes during World War Two because they
provided the clearest path to making bombs for power generation,
though thorium has some real benefits. Uranium two thirty three
formed from thorium is a more efficient fuel than uranium

(03:39):
two thirty five or plutonium, and its reactors may be
less likely to melt down because they can operate up
to higher temperatures. In addition, less plutonium is produced during
reactor operation, and some scientists argue that thorium reactors could
destroy the tons of dangerous plutonium that have been created
and stockpiled since the ninth teen fifties. And not only that,

(04:03):
A fleet of reactors operating on thorium and uranium two
thirty three is thought by some scientists to be more
proliferation resistant, since more sophisticated technology is needed to separate
uranium two thirty three out of the waste products and
use it to make bombs. There are downsides to thorium, however.
One is that thorium and uranium two thirty three are

(04:25):
more dangerously radioactive to chemically process. For that reason, they
are harder to work with. It's also more difficult to
manufacture uranium two thirty three fuel rods. Also, as noted earlier,
thorium is not a fuel. Kron said, if we're going
to power our planet using a fuel cycle that employs

(04:46):
thorium and uranium two thirty three, sufficient uranium two thirty
three must be produced in other types of reactors to
fuel the initial uranium two thirty three reactors, if that
can be accomplished. Methods to chemically process thorium two thirty
two and uranium two thirty three and manufacture fuel from
them are fairly well established. However, facilities to accomplish these

(05:07):
processes wouldn't need to be constructed. There are several ways
thorium could be applied to energy production. Oh One way
under investigation now is to use solid thorium and uranium
two thirty two fuel in a conventional water cooled reactor,
similar to modern uranium based power plants. In fact, more
than twenty reactors worldwide have been operated with fuel made

(05:30):
of thorium and uranium two thirty three. Another prospect that
has been exciting to scientists and nuclear power advocates is
the molten salt reactor. In these plants, fuel is dissolved
in liquid salt that also acts as the coolant for
the reactor. The salt has a high boiling point, so
they can be more efficient in electricity generation, and even

(05:52):
huge temperature spikes will not lead to massive reactor accidents,
such as the disaster that occurred at Fukushima. It might
sound like this kind of reactor is almost the stuff
of science fiction, but just such a reactor was operated
in the United States in the nineteen sixties and is
currently being built of the Gobi Desert in China. Today's

(06:16):
episode is based on the article Coldgorian Power the next
generation of nuclear reactors on how stuff works dot Com,
written by Jesslin Shields. Brain Stuff is production of I
Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff works dot Com
and is produced by Tyler klang Ur. More podcasts from
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