[ RadSafe ] Thorium nuclear fuel cycle

[John R Johnson]

Mike

You have it right.

I worked with the radiation protection aspects of the thorium fuel cycle at 
the AECL CRNL (now CRL) and at UKEAE Winfirth and presented a paper at a 
conference in 1994.
It is THORIUM METABOLISM AND DOSIMETRY; J. R. Johnson, A. Birchall, R.L. 
Hill, and N. Jarvis; Presented at Commission of the European Communities 
(CEC0 Health Effects of Internally Deposited Radionuclides Conference April 
18-22 (1994); pp. 27-31

in Proceedings EUR 15877 EN; World Scientific Pub.



John





----- Original Message ----- 
ishing.

From: "Brennan, Mike (DOH)" <Mike.Brennan at DOH.WA.GOV>
To: <radsafe at radlab.nl>
Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 8:57 AM
Subject: RE: [ RadSafe ] Thorium nuclear fuel cycle


>I don't have firsthand experience in this (very few people do), but as I
> understand it, the argument goes like this:
>
> 1) Since Th232 does not breed into plutonium the U238 does, it does not
> produce that source of potential weapons material.
>
> 2) Since reactors can be designed that uses thorium in the natural
> isotopic ratio, there is no need to enrich fissile material, as there in
> the uranium cycle.
>
> 3) The fissile material isn't actually Th232, but U233, which is bred in
> the thorium fuel.  While U233 can be used to make weapons, there is no
> need to separate it out of the fuel, and so diversion would be easy to
> spot.  I understand from reading when the US experimented with U233 as a
> weapons material that is makes for weapons that are hot sitting on the
> shelf (from the U233 and from U232 contamination that is impossible to
> remove) and thus make it unsuitable for a weapons program.
>
> I think the thorium fuel cycle is well worth pursuing, but more from an
> ease of obtaining the fuel than from non-proliferation point of view.
>
> I hope this is useful.
>
> *********************************************
>
> At 05:03 PM 11/12/2009, Otto G. Raabe wrote:
> November 12, 2009
>
> Can anyone provide some information about the thorium nuclear fuel
> cycle and the reason it is supposed to be a better
> proliferation-resistant nuclear fuel cycle.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Otto
>
> **********************************************
> Prof. Otto G. Raabe, Ph.D., CHP
> Center for Health & the Environment
> University of California
> One Shields Avenue
> Davis, CA 95616
> E-Mail: ograabe at ucdavis.edu
> Phone: (530) 752-7754   FAX: (530) 758-6140
> ***********************************************
>
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