Interesting article proposed by a great mind in the scientific community to move to thorium as the fuel in nucler power plants:

http://www.cavendishscience.org/bks/nuc/thrupdat.htm


Basically its a stable material/element near uranium in the periodic table that isnt normally fissionable.  However by priming the system with neutrons the isotopes can be used in a reactor i.e. you have to pump energy into the system to start the reaction (much like you do to run the new fusion reactors being developed).  It seems daft to push energy in but the resulting nuclear reaction produces 60 times the energy required to keep it primed.  = power using a new material!


Some of the important benefits of using thorium instead of uranium:

* Thorium is a commonly available element in the earths crust (much more common than uranium) and significantly easier to aquire across the globe as it comes out 100% pure unlike natural uranium which only contains ~0.7% of fissionable Uranium 235

* It is much more difficult to produce weapons grade plutonium than it is from uranium breeder reactors potentially meaning developing countries could be equipped with nuclear power stations without the risk of providing them with atomic weapons material.

* Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste than uranium or plutonium reactors.

* Thorium cannot sustain its own chain reaction so when the priming stops the fission stops by default.  This massively reduces the chance of a runaway chain reaction compared to a conventional power plant.

* Greatly reduced half-life of the nuclear waste (mainly because no plutonium waste produced).  Thorium would mean at least a ten-fold reduction of radioactivity in the waste products after 100 years, and a 10,000 fold reduction after 500 years. From a waste storage point of view, this is a significant advantage.

sounds good, when will it happen then?

Looks like its just ramping up but if the CERN group are working on it Id imagine itll be well under way...

QuoteAn encouraging fact is that so far, the simulations and tests have supported the theoretical predictions, which is a testament to the engineering savvy of Carlo Rubbia. In addition to the CERN group, several laboratories in the US, Japan, and Russia are working on various aspects of the EA technology.

At a guess - if China start to decide they want nuclear reactors built this may be something they consider. If they did then the technology would move at an incredible pace otherwise the rest of the world is currently so hung up in building this new fusion power plant running that it may take a while.

wow that looks pretty ideal

Looks far more interesting than building more uranium reactors but as with fusion its going to take time to produce a system. A lot of people arent going to be too trusting on the radiation claims too, they (we) have been lied to far too often.

More on the subject

http://www.thoriumpower.com/

http://www.world-nuclear.org/info/inf62.htm

http://public.web.cern.ch/Public/Content/Chapters/AboutCERN/ResearchUseful/Future/Future-en.html