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The use of thorium as a new primary energy source has been a tantalizing prospect
for many years. Extracting its latent energy value in a cost-effective manner remains
a challenge, and will require considerable R&D investment. This is occurring
preeminently in China, with modest US support.
SINAP sees molten salt fuel being superior to the TRISO fuel in effectively unlimited
burn-up, less waste, and lower fabricating cost, but achieving lower temperatures
(600°C+) than the TRISO fuel reactors (1200°C+). Near-term goals include preparing
nuclear-grade ThF4 and ThO2 and testing them in a MSR. The US Department of
Energy (especially Oak Ridge NL) is collaborating with the Academy on the program,
which had a start-up budget of $350 million.
However, the primary reason that American researchers and the China Academy of
Sciences/ SINAP are working on solid fuel, salt-cooled reactor technology is that it is
a realistic first step. The technical difficulty of using molten salts is significantly lower
when they do not have the very high activity levels associated with them bearing the
dissolved fuels and wastes. The experience gained with component design,
operation, and maintenance with clean salts makes it much easier then to move on
and consider the use of liquid fuels, while gaining several key advantages from the
ability to operate reactors at low pressure and deliver higher temperatures.
Accelerator-driven reactors: A number of groups have investigated how a thorium-
fuelled accelerator-driven reactor (ADS) may work and appear. Perhaps most
notable is the ‘ADTR’ design patented by a UK group. This reactor operates very
close to criticality and therefore requires a relatively small proton beam to drive the
spallation neutron source. Earlier proposals for ADS reactors required high-energy
and high-current proton beams which are energy-intensive to produce, and for which
operational reliability is a problem.
Research reactor ‘Kamini’: India has been operating a low-power U-233 fuelled
reactor at Kalpakkam since 1996 – this is a 30 kWth experimental facility using U-
233 in aluminium plates (a typical fuel-form for research reactors). Kamini is water
cooled with a beryllia neutron reflector. The total mass of U-233 in the core is around
600 grams. It is noteworthy for being the only U-233 fuelled reactor in the world,
though it does not in itself directly support thorium fuel R&D. The reactor is adjacent
to the 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor in which ThO2 is irradiated, producing the
U-233 for Kamini.
Aqueous homogeneous reactor: An aqueous homogenous suspension reactor
operated over 1974-77 in the Netherlands at 1 MWth using thorium plus HEU oxide
pellets. The thorium-HEU fuel was circulated in solution with continuous
reprocessing outside the core to remove fission products, resulting in a high
conversion rate to U-233.
1. Pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) and light water reactors fuelled by
natural uranium producing plutonium that is separated for use in fuels in its
fast reactors and indigenous advanced heavy water reactors.
2. Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) will use plutonium-based fuel to extend their
plutonium inventory. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as
thorium, so that further plutonium (particularly Pu-239) is produced as well as
U-233.
3. Advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) will burn thorium-plutonium fuels in
such a manner that breeds U-233 which can eventually be used as a self-
sustaining fissile driver for a fleet of breeding AHWRs. The final core of the
Shippingport reactor in the USA demonstrated this.
In all of these stages, used fuel needs to be reprocessed to recover fissile materials
for recycling.
India is focusing and prioritizing the construction and commissioning of its fleet of
500 MWe sodium-cooled fast reactors in which it will breed the required plutonium
which is the key to unlocking the energy potential of thorium in its advanced heavy
water reactors. This will take another 15-20 years, and so it will still be some time
before India is using thorium energy to any extent. The 500 MWe prototype FBR
under construction in Kalpakkam was expected to start up in 2014, but 2021 is now
the target date.
In 2009, despite the relaxation of trade restrictions on uranium, India reaffirmed its
intention to proceed with developing the thorium cycle.
Notes
a. Neutron absorption by Th-232 produces Th-233 which beta-decays (with a half-life
of about 22 minutes) to protactinium-233 (Pa-233) – and this decays to U-233 by
further beta decay (with a half-life of 27 days). Some of the bred-in U-233 is
converted to U-234 by further neutron absorption. U-234 is an unwanted parasitic
neutron absorber. It converts to fissile U-235 (the naturally occuring fissile isotope of
uranium) and this somewhat compensates for this neutronic penalty. In fuel cycles
involving the multi-recycle of thorium-U-233 fuels, the build up of U-234 can be
appreciable. [Back]
b. A U-233 nucleus yields more neutrons, on average, when it fissions (splits) than
either a uranium-235 or plutonium-239 nucleus. In other words, for every thermal
neutron absorbed in a U-233 fuel there are a greater number of neutrons produced
and released into the surrounding fuel. This gives better neutron economy in the
reactor system.. [Back]
c. MSRs using thorium will likely have a distinct ‘blanket’ circuit which is optimised for
producing U-233 from dissolved thorium. Neutron moderation is tailored by the
amount of graphite in the core (aiming for an epithermal spectrum). This uranium can
be selectively removed as uranium hexafluoride (UF6) by bubbling fluorine gas
through the salt. After conversion it can be directed to the core as fissile fuel. [Back]
d. Spallation is the process where nucleons are ejected from a heavy nucleus being
hit by a high energy particle. In this case, a high-enery proton beam directed at a
heavy target expels a number of spallation particles, including neutrons. [Back]
e. The core of the Shippingport demonstration LWBR consisted of an array of seed
and blanket modules surrounded by an outer reflector region. In the seed and
blanket regions, the fuel pellets contained a mixture of thorium-232 oxide (ThO 2) and
uranium oxide (UO2) that was over 98% enriched in U-233. The proportion of
UO2 was around 5-6% in the seed region, and about 1.5-3% in the blanket region.
The reflector region contained only thorium oxide at the beginning of the core life.
[Back]
f. Blanket fuel is designed to reach 100 GWd/t burn-up. Together, the seed and
blanket have the same geometry as a normal VVER-100 fuel assembly (331 rods in
a hexagonal array 235 mm wide). [Back]
g. The molten salt in the core circuit consists of lithium, beryllium and fissile U-233
fluorides (FLiBe with uranium). It operates at some 700°C and circulates at low
pressure within a graphite structure that serves as a moderator and neutron reflector.
Most fission products dissolve or suspend in the salt and some of these are removed
progressively in an adjacent on-line radiochemical processing unit. Actinides are
less-readily formed than in fuel with atomic mass greater than 235. The blanket
circuit contains a significant amount of thorium tetrafluoride in the molten Li-Be
fluoride salt. Newly-formed U-233 forms soluble uranium tetrafluoride (UF 4), which is
converted to gaseous uranium hexafluoride (UF6) by bubbling fluorine gas through
the salt (which does not chemically affect the less-reactive thorium tetrafluoride). The
volatile uranium hexafluoride is captured, reduced back to soluble UF 4 by hydrogen
gas, and finally is directed to the core to serve as fissile fuel. Protactinium – a
neutron absorber – is not a major problem in the blanket salt. [Back]
References
1. Data taken from Uranium 2016: Resources, Production and Demand, OECD
Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency. [Back]
2. 2. K.P. Steward, “Final Summary Report on the Peach Bottom End-of-Life
Program”, General Atomics Report GA-A14404, (1978) [Back]
3. (i) W.J. Babyak, L.B. Freeman, H.F. Raab, “LWBR: A successful demonstration
completed” Nuclear News, Sept 1988, pp114-116 (1988), (ii) J.C. Clayton, “The
Shippingport Pressurized Water Reactor and Light Water Breeder Reactor”
Westinghouse Bettis Atomic Power Laboratory WAPD-T-3007 (October 1993).
[Back]
4. (i) S. Şahin, etal, “CANDU Reactor as Minor Actinide / Thorium Burner with
Uniform Power Density in the Fuel Bundle” Ann.Nuc.Energy. 35, 690-703 (2008), (ii)
J. Yu, K, Wang, R. Sollychin, etal, “Thorium Fuel Cycle of a Thorium-Based
Advanced Nuclear Energy System” Prog.Nucl.Energy. 45, 71-84 (2004) [Back]
5. “German Brazilian Program of Research and Development on Thorium Utilization
in PWRs”, Final Report, Kernforschungsanlage Jülich, 1988. [Back]
6. A. Galperin, A. Radkowsky and M. Todosow, A Competitive Thorium Fuel Cycle
for Pressurized Water Reactors of Current Technology, Proceedings of three
International Atomic Energy Agency meetings held in Vienna in 1997, 1998 and
1999, IAEA TECDOC 1319: Thorium fuel utilization: Options and trends, IAEA-
TECDOC-1319. [Back]
General sources
Thorium, in Australian Atlas of Minerals Resources, Mines & Processing Centres
(www.australianminesatlas.gov.au), Geoscience Australia
Thorium: occurrences, geological deposits and resources, by F.H.Barthel &
H.Tulsidas, URAM 2014 conference, IAEA. This presentation is based on a
manuscript: World Thorium Occurrences, Resources and Deposits to be published
by IAEA in 2014
Thorium based fuel options for the generation of electricity: Developments in the
1990s, IAEA-TECDOC-1155, International Atomic Energy Agency, May 2000
Taesin Chung, The role of thorium in nuclear energy, Uranium Industry Annual 1996,
Energy Information Administration, DOE/EIA-0478(96) p.ix-xvii (April 1997)
M. Benedict, T H Pigford and H W Levi, Nuclear Chemical Engineering (2nd Ed.),
Chapter 6: Thorium, p.283-317, 1981, McGraw-Hill(ISBN: 0070045313)
Kazimi M.S. 2003, Thorium Fuel for Nuclear Energy, American Scientist (Sept-Oct
2003)
W.J. Babyak, L.B. Freeman, H.F. Raab, “LWBR: A successful demonstration
completed” Nuclear News, Sept 1988, pp114-116 (1988)
12th Indian Nuclear Society Annual Conference 2001 conference proceedings, vol 2
(lead paper)
Several papers and articles related to the Radkowsky thorium fuel concept are
available on the Lightbridge (formerly Thorium Power) website (www.ltbridge.com)
Robert Hargraves and Ralph Moir, Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors, American
Scientist, Vol. 98, No. 4, P. 304 (July-August 2010)
Thor Energy website
Ho M.K.M., Yeoh G.H., & Braoudakis G., 2013, Molten Salt Reactors, in Materials
and processes for energy: communicating current research and technological
developments, ed A.Mendez-Vilas, Formatex Research Centre
Herring, J.S. et al, 2004, Thorium-based Transmuter Fuels for Light Water Reactors,
INL, Nuclear Technology 147, July 2004
Price, M.S.T., 2012, The Dragon Project origins, achievements and legacies,
Nuclear Engineering and Design 251, 60-68
David, S. et al, 2007, Revisiting the Thorium-Uranium Nuclear Fuel Cycle,
Europhysics News 338, 2
Ashley, S.F. et al, 2012, Thorium fuel has risks, Nature 492: 31-33, 6 Dec 2012
Croff, A.G. et al., Background, Status, and Issues Related to the Regulation of
Advanced Spent Nuclear Fuel Recycle Facilities, Advisory Committee on Nuclear
Waste and Materials (ACNW&M) White Paper, Nuclear Regulatory Commission,
NUREG-1909, June 2008