What kind of waste does thorium produce?

According to some toxicity studies, the thorium cycle can fully recycle actinide wastes and only emit fission product wastes, and after a few hundred years, the waste from a thorium reactor can be less toxic than the uranium ore that would have been used to produce low enriched uranium fuel for a light water reactor of …

What type of waste is produced by a nuclear reactor?

Radioactive
Radioactive (or nuclear) waste is a byproduct from nuclear reactors, fuel processing plants, hospitals and research facilities. Radioactive waste is also generated while decommissioning and dismantling nuclear reactors and other nuclear facilities. There are two broad classifications: high-level or low-level waste.

What are the byproducts of nuclear waste?

There are four categories of byproduct material: Radioactive material that results from the fissioning, or splitting apart, of enriched uranium or plutonium in nuclear reactors. Examples include cobalt-60, cesium-137 and iridium-192. Tailings or waste produced by processing uranium or thorium from ore.

Are there thorium reactors?

Reactors that use thorium are operating on what’s called the Thorium-Uranium (Th-U) fuel cycle. The vast majority of existing or proposed nuclear reactors, however, use enriched uranium (U-235) or reprocessed plutonium (Pu-239) as fuel (in the Uranium-Plutonium cycle), and only a handful have used thorium.

How much waste does a nuclear reactor produce?

The amount of HLW produced (including used fuel when this is considered as waste) during nuclear production is small; a typical large reactor (1 GWe) produces about 25-30 tonnes of used fuel per year.

What is radioactive byproduct?

As defined by NRC regulations includes any radioactive material (except enriched uranium or plutonium) produced by a nuclear reactor. It also includes the tailings or wastes produced by the extraction or concentration of uranium or thorium or the fabrication of fuel for nuclear reactors.

Do thorium reactors produce radioactive waste?

Compared to uranium reactors, thorium reactors produce far less waste and the waste that is generated is much less radioactive and much shorter-lived.

Is thorium better than uranium?

Nuclear Power – Why Thorium Is Much Better Than Uranium. Uranium is what has been used in power plants since the 1950’s, not long after Albert Einstein formulated E=mc^2, which proved the tremendous power and potential in harnessing nuclear energy.

Is thorium the nuclear fuel of the future?

Thorium backed as a ‘future fuel’. If thorium ever makes it as a commercial nuclear fuel, uranium may be seen as a massive and costly diversion. Some supporters of thorium believe that it was bypassed in the past because governments wanted the plutonium from certain conventional reactors to make atomic bombs.

What are the cons of thorium nuclear energy?

Breeding in a thermal neutron spectrum is slow and requires extensive reprocessing.

Is thorium a noble gas?

Thorium is about three times as abundant as uranium, and therefore it may become an important nuclear fuel in the future. Because one of the disintegration products of thorium is the radioactive noble gas radon ( 220 Rn), good ventilation of areas and places where thorium is stored or handled is necessary.