Nuclear Waste Thorium Vs Uranium

The fission product waste is almost identical from both the thoriumuranium 233 and uranium 235plutonium fuel cycles.

Nuclear power plants in the usa. Waste products can contain significantly less long lived radioactive waste than uranium or plutonium. It decays in a few hundred years. Therefore 232 th belongs to primordial nuclides.

The pioneering research development in the nuclear domain was performed with the purpose of creating nuclear weapons. However nations have finally understood the safety aspects of thorium as a nuclear fuel and have. Advantages of thorium 233 over uranium 235.

The three phase plan for thorium development begins with uranium consumption but transitions to the sustainable use of thorium using uranium 233. 232 th decays via alpha decay into 228 ra. Since the fission of thorium doesnt produce plutonium one of the elements used in nuclear weapons as a byproduct uranium the dual purpose nuclear fuel took precedence.

Weapons cannot be proliferated from thorium. In fact its half life is considerably longer than the age of earth. The transuranic elements trus decay in many thousands of years so a repository must be able to accept the heat that long.

Thorium and its waste products re more than 1000 times less radioactive than uraniums. Thorium 232 which alone makes up nearly all natural thorium is the most common isotope of thorium in the naturethis isotope has the longest half life 14 x 10 10 years of all isotopes with more than 83 protons. Decay heat for high level waste from a breeding.

A number of entities have been promoting the benefits of thorium based nuclear fuel cycles. In fact its half life is considerably longer than the age of earth. 232 th decays via alpha decay into 228 ra.

One advocate says having a us. Advantages and disadvantages in using thorium 233 and uranium 235 as nuclear energy fuels. Thorium is more energy efficient operating at higher.

Thorium is a popular talking point as a way to clean up nuclear energy. Mining processing waste generation january 9 2007 december 5 2012 kirk sorensen blog uncategorized ive taken a little time to do another comparison slide between the waste generated in a typical light water reactor compared to a liquid fluoride thorium reactor. Thorium 232 which alone makes up nearly all natural thorium is the most common isotope of thorium in the naturethis isotope has the longest half life 14 x 10 10 years of all isotopes with more than 83 protons.

Therefore 232 th belongs to primordial nuclides. Thorium is not a new idea.