Because of this, producing uranium-233 from thorium requires very careful handling, remote techniques and heavily-shielded containment chambers. This is achieved by bombarding it with neutrons, so that it eventually decays into uranium-233, which can undergo fission.Īs a by-product, the process also produces the highly radiotoxic isotope uranium-232. Instead, it has to be broken down through several stages of radioactive decay. This is because thorium-232, the most commonly found type of thorium, cannot sustain nuclear fission itself. Some countries, including the United States and the United Kingdom, are exploring its potential use as fuel in civil nuclear energy programmes.Īlongside its abundance, one of thorium’s most attractive features is its apparent resistance to nuclear proliferation, compared with uranium. ![]() It is thought to be three to four times more naturally abundant, with substantial deposits spread around the world. Thorium is widely seen as an alternative nuclear fuel source to uranium. If nothing else, this raises a serious proliferation concern.” “Small-scale chemical reprocessing of irradiated thorium can create an isotope of uranium – uranium-233 – that could be used in nuclear weapons. “Thorium certainly has benefits, but we think that the public debate regarding its proliferation-resistance so far has been too one-sided,” Dr Steve Ashley, from the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and the paper’s lead author, said. Using the process identified in their paper, they add that this could be done “in less than a year.” The authors note that, from previous experiments to separate protactinium-233, it is feasible that just 1.6 tonnes of thorium metal would be enough to produce 8kg of uranium-233, which is the minimum amount required for a nuclear weapon. The chemical processes that are needed for protactinium separation could possibly be undertaken using standard lab equipment, potentially allowing it to happen in secret, and beyond the oversight of organisations such as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the paper says. The piece highlights ways in which small quantities of uranium-233, a material usable in nuclear weapons, could be produced covertly from thorium, by chemically separating another isotope, protactinium-233, during its formation. ![]() Writing in a Comment piece in the new issue of the journal, Nature, nuclear energy specialists from four British universities suggest that, although thorium has been promoted as a superior fuel for future nuclear energy generation, it should not be regarded as inherently proliferation resistant. The element thorium, which many regard as a potential nuclear “wonder-fuel”, could be a greater proliferation threat than previously thought, scientists have warned.
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