Abstract
To meet the tremendous world energy needs, systematic R&D has to be pursued to replace fossil fuels. Nuclear energy, which produces no green house gases and no air pollution, should be a leading candidate. How nuclear energy, based on thorium rather than uranium, could be an acceptable solution is discussed. Thorium can be used both to produce energy and to destroy nuclear waste. The thorium conference, organized by iThEC at CERN in October 2013, has shown that thorium is seriously considered by some major developing countries as a key element of their energy strategy. However, developed countries do not seem to move fast enough in that direction, while global cooperation is highly desirable in this domain. Thorium is not fissile. Various possible ways of using thorium will be reviewed. However, an elegant option is to drive an “Accelerator Driven System (ADS)” with a proton accelerator, as suggested by Nobel Prize laureate Carlo Rubbia .
Highlights
Summary. — To meet the tremendous world energy needs, systematic R&D has to be pursued to replace fossil fuels
1. – Burning fossil fuel till the end? If, by the end of the 21st century, people in developing countries are allowed to live as well as people do in Europe today, the world power consumption will have to increase by a factor three or more
In the 1990s, Carlo Rubbia gave a major push to the Accelerator Driven System (ADS) technology, by launching a vigorous research programme at CERN, based on the development of innovative simulation of nuclear systems, specific experiments to test basic concepts (FEAT [17], TARC [18]), and construction of an advanced neutron Time of Flight facility (n TOF [19]) to acquire neutron cross-section data, crucial to simulate reliably any configuration with new materials
Summary
Fig. 1. – Top: Example of air pollution: photo of Paris, March 2014, reminiscent of Beijing (credit eknews). The use of thorium minimizes long-lived nuclear waste production It takes 7 successive neutron captures to produce 239Pu from 232Th – Neutron capture, β-decay and fission chain for natural thorium immersed in a fast neutron flux, showing that the probability of producing 239Pu must be extremely small, as it requires 7 successive neutron captures This explains why the long-term component of nuclear waste, mainly transuranic elements, is suppressed by several orders of magnitude with thorium, compared to uranium fuel. Even though 233U is generally a better fissile element than 235U and 239Pu, it is precisely where one would want to use thorium to minimize nuclear waste production, namely in the fast neutron part of the energy spectrum, that 239Pu is somewhat better than 233U Issues remain concerning the complexity of developing and maintaining three nuclear technologies; the sustainability, as it requires uranium in the first stage; and the lack of a solution for the accumulated nuclear waste
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