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How long will it take for all the uranium collected to be converted to thorium?
Wiki User
∙ 12y ago
Billion of years; each isotope has a different half life.
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∙ 12y ago
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What does uranium become when it decays?
If we use uranium-238 as our starter isotope, what happens is that a nuclear decay event happens (in this case an alpha decay) and the U-238 transforms into a daughter isotope thorium (Th-234). The half-life of this transition is 4.5 billion years. Thorium-234 then undergoes a decay. And the process continues until a stable isotope is created as the last daughter of a decay chain. Note that there will be different half lives for the transition events, and the modes of decay will vary depending on what daughter is now the parent in the next decay event. Use the link below to see all the steps. The chart will show the whole chain including the half-life of isotope undergoing decay, the decay mode, and the daughter. Follow along using the keys and the process will reveal itself.
Is thorium reactive to magnets?
Thorium is a paramagnetic metal, not ferromagnetic.
What is thorium and how does it differ from other fuels used for nuclear power?
Thorium is a element, just as uranium is. The naturally occurring isotope is thorium-232, which can absorb a neutron to produce thorium-233. This undergoes rapid decay to produce protactinium-233, and then uranium-233. The uranium-233 is fertile. Since all this can happen within an atomic reactor, the net effect is that naturally occurring thorium, with a little help to get neutrons, can fuel atomic reactors. Thorium differs from other fuels in several important ways. First off, it is far more abundant than uranium, and it does not need to be enriched. This means it is potentially a less expensive fuel both in terms of price and in terms of effort and energy to bring into use at the reactor. Also, there are very real possibilities of thorium fuel rods being built that can simply replace the fuel rods of current reactors. Second, the uranium-233 has much more damaging radiation than the uranium-235. This is both good and bad. It is bad, because it means better shielding has to be used at the reactor, but this might not mean much at many reactors already in use. The good is that it reduces the likelihood of theft of radioactive waste for terrorist purposes, because it would very like kill anyone who attempted such a thing. Thorium also could be used in energy amplifiers or accelerator driven systems, which, if successful, might be able to reduce present nuclear wast to materials that are not particularly dangerous over the long term. If thorium is used in this way, there is probably enough of it to power the world at current demand levels for several thousand years, and the waste could be rendered relatively safe in the process. Research in this system is not moving very fast, possibly because there seems to be no incentive to do it in the United States. I am providing links below to articles on thorium and energy amplifiers.
What type of a resource is Thorium?
Thorium is a fertile material for nuclear power reactors. But at a long therm is non-renewable.
What is the decay product of uranium-238?
U-238 is the most abundant (99.3%) of the three naturally occurring isotopes of Uranium. The other two are U-235 and U-234.U-238 decays spontaneously to Thorium-234 by alpha particle emission. This decays by beta decay to Protactinium-234 and then that undergoes beta decay to become U-234.There are many more decay steps by alpha and beta emission. The end result is Lead-206 which is stable.The full path can be found in the Argonne National Laboratories Human Health Fact Sheet, August 2005, titled Natural Decay Series: Uranium, Radium, and ThoriumThis is found at:http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/natural-decay-series.pdf
Why is thorium not used in a nuclear reactor?
: Main article: Thorium fuel cycle Thorium, as well as uranium and plutonium, can be used as fuel in a nuclear reactor. Although not fissile itself, 232Th will absorb slow neutrons to produce (233U), which is fissile. Hence, like 238U, it is fertile. Problems include the high cost of fuel fabrication due partly to the high radioactivity of 233U which is a result of its contamination with traces of the short-lived 232U; the similar problems in recycling thorium due to highly radioactive 228Th; some weapons proliferation risk of 233U; and the technical problems (not yet satisfactorily solved) in reprocessing. Much development work is still required before the thorium fuel cycle can be commercialised, and the effort required seems unlikely while (or where) abundant uranium is available. Nevertheless, the thorium fuel cycle, with its potential for breeding fuel without fast neutron reactors, holds considerable potential long-term benefits. Thorium is significantly more abundant than uranium, and is a key factor in sustainable nuclear energy. One of the earliest efforts to use a thorium fuel cycle took place at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s. An experimental reactor was built based on Molten Salt Reactor technology to study the feasibility of such an approach, using thorium-fluoride salt kept hot enough to be liquid, thus eliminating the need for fabricating fuel elements. This effort culminated in the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment that used 232Th as the fertile material and 233U as the fissile fuel. Due to a lack of funding, the MSR program was discontinued in 1976.
The amount of nuclear energy left and how long it will last?
The present use of uranium 235 will probably be able to continue another 50 years or so, depending on how many reactors are built worldwide. There are other possibilities including breeding fissile fuel from uranium 238 or thorium. Then fusion may also become feasible, and there is plenty of fuel for that available.
How rare is radium?
There aren't any "deposits" of radium compounds, but there are traces of it in a lot places where traces (or more) of uranium are found. The tiny bit of this element that occurs naturally is widely distributed. With a great deal of effort, it can be accumulated from the refining of carnotite, an ore of uranium. Radium is (highly) radioactive, and it is a daughter of the radioactive decay of thorium, which is, in turn, a radioactive daughter of uranium decay. The uranium and thorium in this decay chain are long lived, and radium is relatively short-lived. This translates into the idea that only trace amounts of it exist naturally. The chemistry of radium was known largely from working with only trace amounts. Additional information was gleaned from the study of larger quantities following its separation from carnotite, a uranium ore. A link to the Wikipedia article on radium is provided.
How long will it take 50 milligrams of thorium-232 to deacy to 25 milligrams?
Approximately 14 billion years, the half-life of Thorium 232
Given current world population growth rates continuing how long would world supply of uranium suitable for nuclear power generation continue before you run out if it replaced all other sources of powe?
A correct answer is impossible. With the uranium reserves known today and using only nuclear power reacyors with thermal neutrons, without using thorium cycle or plutonium from recycled irradiated fuels, uranium will be exhausted in cca. 100 years.
How long can radioactivity be on uranium?
As long as there are any uranium atoms. Since U-238 has a half-life of over a billion years, that can be a long, long time.
How long will it take a 2kg sample of Thorium-219 to decay to 15.6g?
Approx. 7 microseconds because the half life of thorium 219 is 1,05± 0,03 μs.
