How is thorium recycled?

How is thorium recycled?

Nuclear waste is recyclable. Once reactor fuel (uranium or thorium) is used in a reactor, it can be treated and put into another reactor as fuel. In fact, typical reactors only extract a few percent of the energy in their fuel.

What happens to thorium waste?

This waste fuel is highly radioactive and the culprits – these high-mass isotopes – have half-lives of many thousands of years. As such, the waste has to be housed for up to 10,000 years, cloistered from the environment and from anyone who might want to get at the plutonium for nefarious reasons.

Why is thorium a bad idea?

Irradiated Thorium is more dangerously radioactive in the short term. The Th-U cycle invariably produces some U-232, which decays to Tl-208, which has a 2.6 MeV gamma ray decay mode. Bi-212 also causes problems. These gamma rays are very hard to shield, requiring more expensive spent fuel handling and/or reprocessing.

Can you touch thorium?

Alpha particles do not penetrate the human skin and is therefore not dangerous. Thorium-232 is safe provided we are not stupid enough to eat it or ground it up into a fine powder and inhale it. Thorium-232 DOES NOT produce the dangerous penetrating ionising gamma rays.

How is nuclear waste recycled?

The nuclear fuel recycling process is straightforward. It involves converting spent plutonium and uranium into a “mixed oxide” that can be reused in nuclear power plants to produce more electricity. Only then is it separated for recycling into mixed-oxide fuel.

What kind of waste does thorium produce?

According to some toxicity studies, the thorium cycle can fully recycle actinide wastes and only emit fission product wastes, and after a few hundred years, the waste from a thorium reactor can be less toxic than the uranium ore that would have been used to produce low enriched uranium fuel for a light water reactor of …

Is thorium cleaner than uranium?

Thorium is safer and more efficient to mine than uranium, thus making it more environmentally friendly. [5] The percentage of thorium found in its ore is generally greater than the percentage of uranium found in its ore, so it is more cost-efficient.

Is thorium more powerful than uranium?

Mining thorium is safer and more efficient than mining uranium. Thorium’s ore, monazite, generally contains higher concentrations of thorium than the percentage of uranium found in its respective ore. This makes thorium a more cost efficient and less environmentally damaging fuel source.

Is it safe to handle thorium?

HAZARD SUMMARY * Thorium Dioxide can affect you when breathed in and may be absorbed through the skin. * Thorium Dioxide is a CARCINOGEN–HANDLE WITH EXTREME CAUTION.

How toxic is thorium?

Thorium is radioactive and can be stored in bones. Because of these facts it has the ability to cause bone cancer many years after the exposure has taken place. Breathing in massive amounts of thorium may be lethal. People will often die of metal poisoning when massive exposure take place.

How is thorium used in a nuclear reactor?

A thorium reactor is a form of nuclear energy, proposed for use as a molten salt reactor. It is fueled by the uranium-233 isotope that is taken from the element thorium. Thorium is weakly radioactive, has a high melting point, and is available with more abundance than uranium as an element.

Where can thorium be found in the world?

What is thorium? Thorium is a naturally occurring radioactive metal that is found in soil, rock, and water. It is formed by the radioactive decay of uranium. Minerals such as monazite, thorite, and thorianite are rich in thorium and may be mined for the metal.

How does thorium get out of a mineral?

Thorium is extracted from its minerals with hot sulfuric acid or hot concentrated extracted with organic solvents (commonly kerosene containing tributylphosphate), stripped from the organic phase by alkali solutions, and crystallized as thorium nitrate or precipitated with oxalate.

Can a person be exposed to high levels of thorium?

Although thorium is widespread in the environment, most people are not exposed to dangerous levels of the metal. However, people who live near thorium-mining areas or facilities that manufacture products with thorium may have increased exposure, especially if their water comes from a private well.