3 ms·
Thorium touted as The Answer to our energy needs
- neutronicus 16y agoOnce again, no mention of the real reason we use Uranium: Thorium is not fissile. It only becomes fissile through transmutation to Uranium 233 by neutron activation. The only place with high enough neutron fluxes to transmute a significant amount of Thorium? A nuclear reactor. So, one needs a working nuclear reactor (as well as a reprocessing plant to extract the U-233!) to produce fuel from Thorium. Basically two whole levels of pain in the ass that don't exist in the Uranium cycle, for a system that, no matter what its advocates say, is not that different from a safety perspective.