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Can naturally occurring thorium be used as a fuel in N Reactors?
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
Thorium itself is not a fuel, it does not emit energy. However if it is irradiated in a reactor it forms uranium233 which is a fissile isotope of uranium. Therefore potentially thorium can be used to breed fissile fuel. There are issues around reprocessing however which have not been tackled because the incentive is not there whilst uranium235 is available. Thorium might become important in the future, or for a country which has thorium but not uranium.
See link below
Wiki User
∙ 15y ago
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Breeder reactors are used to convert?
Breeder reactors are used to convert fertile fuel into fissile fuel.
What are the fertile nuclei uses in nuclear fuel industry?
They are not used commercially at present, but U-238 and thorium can be used to produce fissile material, in breeder reactors. The technology has been demonstrated in experimental plants but is not commercially attractive whilst there are plentiful supplies of uranium with U-235 enriched.
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.
Are uranium pellets used in fuel rods that provide the energy for nuclear reactors?
Yes, many reactors use uranium as their nuclear fuel, but some use plutonium or a uranium-plutonium mix.
Does CANDU reactor use enriched uranium?
CANDU Reactors are specifically designed such that they do not require enriched uranium, and can operate entirely on naturally-occurring uranium. A CANDU design is generally used by parties that do not desire uranium enrichment facilities, due to the cost of those facilities. That said, a CANDU reactor CAN use enriched uranium, they are fully capable of supporting that fuel type.
What is the naturally occurring actinide that is used in nuclear reactors?
We look to the naturally occurring element uranium as a nuclear fuel.
What does Uranium and Thorium have in common?
Uranium and thorium are both metals in the actinoid series of the periodic table. They are both silvery colored, both softer than steel, somewhat ductile, and not very good conductors of electricity. They are somewhat similar chemically. Uranium and thorium are both naturally occurring radioactive substances. In fact they are the only radioactive substances occurring in any abundance on earth. Neither is very commonly found, but thorium is much more common on land in minerals and ores. They can both be used for fuel in nuclear reactors, though the reactors designed for them are differently designed so as to take advantage of them most efficiently. Uranium differs from thorium in one major way, which is that it has a fissile isotope. In fact, Uranium-235 is the only fissile isotope occurring in nature. The fact that it is fissile means that it will naturally undergo fission spontaneously. Other naturally occurring isotopes of both uranium and thorium are fissionable, meaning that it can be induced to undergo fission by colliding a neutron into its nucleus.
Fuel for nucleur reactors?
Uranium, plutonium or thorium (for fission reactors, by far the most common type).
Is thorium used in nuclear reactors?
Not as fuel, but it can be used in breeder reactors as breeding material to make fissile Uranium-233.
Why thorium is not used as fuel in nuclear reactors?
Thorium is and can be used as a fuel in nuclear reactors. It just happens to be not fissile, so it needs a neutron flux to create Uranium-233, which is fissile. There are pros and cons of using Thorium. For more information, please see the Related Link below.
If uranium was to run out what other sources are available to replace it?
AnswerProbably the nuclear fusion AnswerThere are a number of reactor designs based on using thorium, and fuel assemblies using thorium as a primary fuel can be designed and built to be used in existing reactors.
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 naturally occurring radioistope is used as the fuel for a nuclear reactor?
Uranium is usually the element of choice for nuclear fuel. We also like to recover the uranium-235 isotope for fuel if we can. Some reactors use mostly U-235 for fuel, and some use a bit of U-235 in with U-238 for fuel.
What is fuel for nuclear reactors?
Uranium plutonium, thorium dioxides; also carbides can be used. During the time many other types of fuels were experimented.
Which metals are used in nuclear reactors except thorium?
for example:uranium as nuclear fuelzirconium for nuclear fuel claddingstainless steel for different structurescadmium for neutron capture
What element is put into nuclear reactors for energy?
Reactors can be fueled by uranium or many of the transuranic elements, but uranium is the only element that occurs naturally with large enough levels of its fissionable isotope uranium-235 for practical use. Plutonium is also a good reactor fuel, but must be produced first from the plentiful but nonfissionable uranium-238 in a reactor as it only occurs naturally at trace levels. While thorium cannot be directly used as fuel, the fissionable isotope uraniuum-233 which can be used as fuel can be produced from it in a nuclear reactor. For transuranics other than plutonium (and maybe americium) specially designed fast neutron reactors are required to effectively use them as fuel, but they too can be used.
Which elements are used for nuclear reactors in India?
Uranium. There is some interest in using thorium in the future. Thorium cannot be used directly as fuel in a reactor as it does not fission, it requires a fast breeder reactor to convert it to Uranium-233 which does fission.
