Re: Thorium Reactor

Dear Amanda:
This is in reply to your question about the Thorium Reactor.  A thorium 
reactor, however would really be a Uranium 233 reactor.  Thorium as found 
in nature is not fissionable.  However in a nuclear reactor the thorium 
will be transformed into Uranium 233. which is fissionable.  A Uraniuim 233 
reactor would then be the reactor which is really is really using thorium.

However getting Thorium out of the earth and mining it is very costly and 
not economicall viable at this time.

I am assuming that you know how a nuclear reactor works so I will not 
explain any more detail here unles you tell me that you wish me to.

I am sending you below an extract of an article about Thorium which I took 
off the internet from Britannica Online-ther encyclopedia Brittanica.

This gives very useful information about Thorium and will help you 
understand why it is not used at this time.  Please ask again if you wish 
more information.

FOLLOWING BRITANNICA ARTICLE:                                              
          

  Extraction and Processing Industries

            THORIUM:

            Thorium (Th) is a dense (11.7 grams per cubic centimetre), 
silvery metal that is softer than steel. It has a high melting emperature 
of approximately 1,750 C (3,180 F). Below about 1,360 C (2,480 F), the 
metal exists in the face-centred cubic (fcc) crystalline form; at 
higher temperatures up to its melting point, it takes on the body-centred 
cubic B(cc) form. Finely divided thorium metal will burn in air, but the 
massive metal is stable in air at ordinary temperatures (although it will 
react With oxygen to form a surface tarnish after prolonged exposure). 
Because of its reactivity, it is extracted from minerals only with 
difficulty. 

            Almost all thorium found in nature is the isotope 
thorium-232 (several other isotopes exist in trace amounts or can be 
produced synthetically). This slightly radioactive material is not fissile 
itself, but it can be transformed in a nuclear reactor to the fissile 
uranium-233. Since thorium is present in the Earth's crust in about three 
times the quantity of uranium, its fertile quality represents a virtually 
unlimited source of nuclear energy. In order for this theoretical value to 
be realized, however, the barriers of costly extraction and conversion 
techniques would have to be overcome. 

            Ores.

            The major commercial source of thorium is monazite, an 
anhydrous rare-earth phosphate with the chemical formula (Ce,La,Nd,Th)PO4.
Typically, 3 to 5 percent of the metal content of monazite is thorium (in
the form of thorium dioxide, ThO2). Much of the world's current       
demand for thorium metal and its compounds is satisfied by mining          
placers along India's Malabar Coast, where wave action d                   
monazite as a coarse yellow-to-brown sand on beaches. Other ores of
thorium are the oxide mineral thorianite (ThO2) and the silicate mineral
thorite (ThSiO4); these are not commercially mined. 

            Mining and concentrating.

Monazite beach sands are readily mined with conventional placer mining
equipment and procedures. The dredged monazite is admixed with a
variety of other minerals, including silica, magnetitiete,ilmenite, zircon, 
and garnet. Concentration is accomplished by washing out 
lighter minerals in shaking tables and passing the resulting monazite 
fraction through a series of electromagnetic separators, which separate 
monazite from other minerals by virtue of their differ