Revisiting the thorium-uranium nuclear fuel cycle

Abstract

europhysicsnews 24 • volume 38 • number 2 amounts of uranium 233 available remained tiny, insufficient to allow the rapid development of a thorium-uranium concept. It appears today that the growth rate of nuclear power worldwide does not require the fast development of breeder reactor concepts. It is then possible, as we show in this paper, to constitute a stockpile of uranium 233 that could allow the development of a fleet of thorium-uranium reactors. We show also that such a concept has many major advantages, in particular concerning the disposal of radioactive waste and the risks of nuclear proliferation.We give a brief description of the types of reactors being considered to implement this fuel cycle and of a strategy that makes use of today’s reactors to create the initial stockpiles of uranium 233.