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Advanced Fission Technologies and Systems
Published in William J. Nuttall, Nuclear Renaissance, 2022
A second key difference from conventional uranium-fuelled thermal critical reactors is that the Energy Amplifier uses thorium rather than uranium fuel. Thorium is roughly three times more abundant than uranium and as such is posited as the basis of a wholly new nuclear fuel cycle in the event that economic uranium resources are depleted. The use of thorium as a fission reactor fuel is interesting because thorium is not fissile. The key to the use of thorium is neutron capture by thorium-232 to form fissile uranium-233. While it is possible to construct a critical thorium/plutonium reactor the safety margins would be much tighter than in conventional uranium reactors as the fraction of delayed neutrons is lower in the thorium-based concept. In an ADS, where the level of criticality is maintained by an external neutron source, such concerns are much less burdensome [195]. Thorium has the added benefit of generating very few higher actinides (Po, Am, Cm, etc.) although this does not allow one to sidestep concerns around nuclear security and non-proliferation. We shall consider such aspects further in Section III.8.7.
Uranium Enrichment, Nuclear Fuels, and Fuel Cycles
Published in Robert E. Masterson, Nuclear Engineering Fundamentals, 2017
Uranium-233 has the advantage that it can be produced in very large quantities from plentiful Thorium-232, and unlike the Uranium-238/Plutonium-239 fuel cycle that we will discuss next, it does not require the superior neutron economy of a fast reactor in order to breed Uranium-233 at significant rates. U-233 usually fissions when it absorbs a neutron, but it sometimes retains a neutron, becoming Uranium-234 instead. The fission to capture ratio is larger than that of either Uranium-235 or Plutonium-239, and so it is a superior fuel from a number of other perspectives. The long-term nuclear strategy of India and several other countries (which have substantial thorium reserves) is to rely on thorium to breed Uranium-233 to meet their future energy needs. The United States, which also has very large resources, has decided to stick to the more conventional Uranium-238/Plutonium-239 fuel cycle, which we will now discuss.
Turkey’s electricity generation problem and nuclear energy policy
Published in Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and Environmental Effects, 2019
Currently, the existence of thorium in nature and thorium’s potential use in nuclear technology have not seen the deserved value actually even though the natural thorium isotope 232Th (Thorium-232) is eventually able to be transformed to a fissile 233U (Uranium-233) nucleus following a thermal neutron capture reaction. Probably, this is due to the existing availability of natural resources of uranium and thorium. As shown in Figures 12 and 13, globally distributions of uranium and thorium reserves show that generally some developed countries such as the USA, Australia, Canada have a large part of uranium reserves and conversely, only some developing countries such as Turkey, India, Brazil, and Egypt have remarkable reserves of thorium as being totally about 70% of the global reserve.
Study of the Effects of Moderators on ADS System Performance Based on UN-ThO2 Fuel
Published in Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2021
A. M. M. Ali, Hanaa H. Abou-Gabal, Nader M. A. Mohamed, Ayah E. Elshahat
Figure 9 shows that the 232Th content in the ADS core was reduced by about 22.5% for all cases. Thorium-232 is a fertile material and by absorbing a neutron will convert to 233U (Ref. 7), which is an attractive fissile fuel material. Consequently, the reduction in 232Th content in the ADS core is a good indication of the 233U breeding.