What's the Issue?!: Alternative Energy: Thorium

Thorium energy is not a new discovery that scientists have stumbled upon all of a sudden. Thorium energy was used for 4 years between 1965-1969 when Nixon withdrawals his pledge to the Liquid Metal Fast Breeder Reactor, which is used by to create energy with the element Thorium.

Thorium was discovered by John Berzelius in 1829. Thorium is a radioactive metal, which naturally occurs in the environment. Thorium is used for the thorium fuel cycle to create nuclear fuel. Thorium engrosses neutrons which

will eventually produce Uranium-233.

Thorium in the earth exists as thorium-232, but in order for it to be used as fuel, it has to become fissile. Fissile means able to undergo nuclear fission. Thorium-232 must become Thorium-233, which is a fertile material, created by absorbing neutrons. There is a unique type of reactor, Molten Salt Reactor, needed to complete this procedure. Then Thorium-233 decays into protactinium-233, then producing Uranium-233. This then proceeds the Uranium process to create energy.

Some side effects to take into consideration is the waste left behind by this procedure. The waste is radioactive for 500 years, which is lower than from Uranium-235 waste. If this waste were to get into the environment, it could lead to many serious health consequences.

There will have to a lot of government investments to build the reactors needed to turn Thorium-232 into Uranium-233. The money will also go into getting Thorium-232, but I do not believe a lot of it will go towards this part of the process because it is abundant. Most of the money will go towards transforming Thorium-232 into Uranium-233, the technology and facility needed to carry out this action. As well as how to dispose of the waste produced. This must be disposed of carefully because it is still radioactive and is not allowed to be dumped in a landfill. The government may also want to impose a tax break in order to extract Thorium.

This energy would be distributed by transmission lines. This would carry out the same motion as using Uranium-235 transmission lines. Thorium energy is a centralized system. Thorium is used on the grid, but may also be used off the grid. Thorium may be used for transportation. There are a few cars that have been produced that run on Thorium. In one case, a Thorium fueled car could run on eight grams of Thorium for 100 years. It works by a laser heating up water, which produces steam and powers a mini turbine in the car. I think this is quite amazing because not only are there little to no Thorium power plants and Thorium powered cars is crazy. Although I do not see the possibility of this alternative fueled car to go on the market anytime soon.

The fact that most scientists do not have a lot of experience with Thorium is quite troubling. Since there is not a lot of experience with Thorium, errors may occur. The process of transforming Thorium-232 into Uranium-233 is quite complicated.

Thorium as an alternative energy source is safer, cleaner, efficient and cheaper in the long run. Safer- Thorium is not fissile, which means it will not split apart or explode on by themselves. The person also has the power to stop a reaction by simply stopping the source of neutrons. The waste left behind by Thorium does not have the capacity to be used in a nuclear weapon as the waste produced by Uranium-235. A Thorium nuclear power plant would not depend on on a human to check up on the reactors but rather on physics and machines. Cleaner- does not create as much waste as the Uranium-235, which is used today. Uranium produces 1,000-10,000 times less waste and is only radioactive for 500 rather than 10,000 years with Uranium-235. Efficient- A ton of Thorium can produce as much energy as 10 tons of Uranium-235 or 3, 500, 000 tons of coal. Cheaper- A gigawatt (GW) would cost about $780 million in a thorium power plant rather than $1.1 billion in a Uranium power plant.

There are many countries using Thorium as an energy source in many ways. Some of these countries include: China, Canada, Germany, India, Israel, Japan, Norway, the U.K and eve here in the U.S. China is leading the way when they stated in 2011, that they were going to begin researching and developing thorium molten-salt reactor technology. China is expected to build two molten salt reactor prototypes in 2015. India is following as well and designed the “next-generation nuclear reactor”, which is aimed to be completed in 2016. The U.S., in my opinion, is still quite skeptical about Thorium nuclear power plants because we are accustomed to Uranium based nuclear power. Why can’t we change our energy forms, it will not only benefit the environment, but us as well.

So then, what are we waiting for?