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Thorium Reactors
01 Introduction
In this episode we will describe the use of thorium in nuclear power, including what thorium is, how it differs from uranium, and what sort of reactors can use it.
03 What is thorium
05 How thorium differs from uranium
07 Sources of Thorium
09 Why there is interest in using thorium as a fuel
10 Abundance of Thorium
11 Some Countries Have a Lot of It
12 Thorium Breeder Reactors are Simpler than Uranium Breeder Reactors
14 Supposed Lower Nuclear Weapons Potential
16 What is Thorium Breeding
20 Breeding Ratio
21 What sorts of reactors can use thorium
22 PHWRs - Heavy Water Reactors (Including CANDU)
24 HTR - High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors
26 MSR - Molten Salt Reactors
29 Light Water Reactors (PWR, BWR)
31 Fast Neutron Reactors
32 The Challenges Facing Thorium Fuelled Reactors
37 Thorium in India - An Example Use Case
39 Why is India Pursuing Using Thorium?
40 How a Thorium Fuel Cycle Would Work in India
43 Current Status
46 Conclusion
Thorium is an abundant material that is seen as an alternative to uranium in nuclear power.
Experimental thorium power reactors date back to at least the 1960s.
No new reactor technology is required to use thorium.
Existing well proven reactor designs which have been in use for decades can use thorium as fuel.
The common light water reactor designs that popular in some countries however are not well suited to using thorium.
Initial interest in thorium was mainly driven by a perception that uranium would be in short supply in future, and slow neutron thorium reactors were cheaper and simpler than fast neutron uranium reactors.
However, huge new high grade supplies of uranium were found in a number of countries, causing uranium prices to fall and reducing interest in finding alternatives.
While some R&D continues on thorium fuel in a number of countries, the mainstream of development continues to be on uranium based fuel.
Some countries with abundant thorium reserves though maintain a major interest in thorium, with India being the prime example.
In the next episode we will describe small modular reactors.
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