Re: Thorium - the idea is growing!

[dave andrews]

Hi Oliver - I am sure this was posted.........but will send again.

 

kind regards

 

Dave A

On 24 May 2011 14:55, Oliver Tickell <oli...@its.me.uk> wrote:

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Thorium - the idea is growing!
Date: Mon, 09 May 2011 14:34:14 +0100
From: Oliver Tickell <oli...@its.me.uk>
To: energy-disc...@googlegroups.com


Resending under proper subject-line ...
--

Thorium may be a generally 'better' fission cycle than conventional
U235, but it is still a fission cycle and will still yield a whole load
of nasty fission products some of which will last a very long time.

As for this idea that it's so wonderful having a salt 'drain plug' at
the bottom of the reactor that will spill out all the molten salt fuel
in the event of over-heating, is that really so great? Sure it will stop
the fission process but the fact is, this stuff will still be strongly
thermogenic (like the fuel rods at Fukushima) but will dissolve as soon
as you start dropping water on it to try and cool it down - result,
massive spillage into the environment of high level nuclear waste rich
in said fission products. Uh-oh.

But the main thing is that this fuel cycle relies on loads of
re-processing, and it is during re-processing that you get the biggest
routine discharges into air / sea / ocean of radio-isotopes, in the
process generating huge volumes of low and intermediate level waste.
Plus of course larger accidental releases.

So if Thorium is the solution, remind me, what exactly was the problem?

Oliver Tickell.

--

Dave Andrews

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