It was 60 years later that the reactive nature of Thorium was discovered by Gerhard Schmidt and Marie Curie. Thorium is a naturally occurring, slightly radioactive metal that was isolated in 1828 by the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius. Thorium-fueled reactors offer a potentially safer, cleaner, and more abundant alternative to traditional reactors fueled with the highly radioactive elements. This is where Thorium-fueled reactors have an edge over other nuclear energy technologies. And all of these accidents haven’t helped public perception, which has held back interest in pushing nuclear power policy ahead. And this can be catastrophic, like what happened with Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima. If something goes wrong while controlling the nuclear reaction, this can cause the reactor’s core to meltdown due to excessive heat produced from the chain reaction. The control rods are typically made out of neutron-absorbing materials like silver and boron, but the element that’s used depends on mechanical and lifetime characteristics, the neutron energy inside the reactor, and how it resists neutron-swelling. In order to ensure safety in the nuclear reaction, reactors have control systems called “rods” that speed up or slow down or even stop the nuclear reaction if necessary. The heat generated by the reaction in the core is used to create steam to turn a turbine and generate electricity. Along with the core is a moderator, that’s usually water or graphite, which is used to reduce the speed of the neutrons coming from the fission process in order to feed the chain reaction. It uses a fuel that’s usually a radioactive metal like Uranium-235 (U-235) or Plutonium-239 (Pu-239).
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Inside the nuclear reactor is a robust steel vessel containing the reactor core where the fission occurs. Some of those neutrons go on to hit other atoms … and this cycle keeps going.
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In short, atoms are bombarded with neutron particles, fissioning the atoms into two smaller atoms and some additional neutrons. You’re probably aware that nuclear reactors are responsible for containing and controlling nuclear fission, which is a process where atoms split and release energy in a chain reaction. That means getting into the chemical concepts behind the operation of these rectors. Moving toward a thorium fuel cycle has a lot of unknowns.” -Lin-Wen Hu, director of research and irradiation services at MIT’s Nuclear Reactor Laboratory 2īut since then there’s actually been some progress.īefore we take a deep dive into recent news on thorium and molten salt reactors, let’s quickly review what they are, how they work, and what pros and cons they have. Molten-salt reactors need to be demonstrated with a uranium fuel cycle before that system can be used for a thorium fuel cycle. ”There is still a lot of work to be done in terms of demonstrating molten-salt reactor technology, even for uranium-based reactors. 1Īlso, due to the technical and practical challenges of molten salt reactors, Lin-Wen Hu, director of research and irradiation services at MIT’s Nuclear Reactor Laboratory had said: That was a significant loss for the company, considering that the cost to demonstrate a reactor like that was about a billion dollars according to the CEO of TerraPower, Chris Levesque. For example, in 2019 the construction of the experimental power plant for the traveling-wave reactor (TWR) developed by TerraPower was suspended. But at that time, at least here in the U.S., we hadn’t seen significant progress in projects involving molten salt reactors. In 2020, I produced a video on Thorium reactors explaining what they are, why people were excited about them, and if they could really be the future of green energy.
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Could Thorium reactors build a cheaper and safer future for nuclear power? With experimental tests scheduled for a Thorium-reactor in China and US companies developing projects that should be spinning up in the next few years, let’s revisit Thorium energy and molten-salt reactors, and when we’ll be able to see their impact.
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Alongside small modular reactors, molten salt reactors (MSRs) that use Thorium as a fuel, are considered cheaper, cleaner and safer options to the traditional reactors fueled with the highly radioactive elements and can benefit a nuclear energy expansion. While nuclear power raises fear among many of us, it’s considered one of our better options for a reliable, carbon-free future.