3 ms·

Isn't it pretty much impossible to make weapons from Thorium (and byproducts)?

• jabl 8y ago
  Unfortunately, it's very possible. Separate out the Pa233 (can be done chemically), wait for it to decay, and you have pure U233 usable for a bomb. Particularly easy if you have a reactor allowing you to siphon out Pa233 while the thing is running, such as a molten salt reactor. All in all, is this easier than going the traditional path of natural U + graphite piles to produce weapons grade Pu? Perhaps not, considering apparently all actual nuclear weapon states have gone the U-Pu way. But nothing to dismiss out of hand either.
• pjc50 8y ago
  It's certainly not the easy route, but on the other hand there's only one running Thorium reactor and it's some way from being production-ready. Again, we need to deploy something else to reduce CO2 in the meantime.
• samhain 8y ago
  You absolutely can. The reason that they didn't want to use it in WWII was because of a combination of politics and that one of the trans-uranics that is produced creates gamma rays that are easily traceable. Imagine having gamma ray imaging in a satellite and being able to see all of the nuclear silos clear as day because they have U233 bombs.