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Thorium fueled car needs refueling once a 100 years.

LOL once thorium revolution begin the middle east will be done. Nothing there of interest to the rest of the non Muslim world except sand and camel.. The only country in the middle east that will be worth a dime is Israel.
 
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KAMINI (Kalpakkam Mini reactor) is a research reactor at Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research in Kalpakkam, India. Its first criticality was on October 29, 1996. It produces 30 kW of thermal energy at full power.

KAMINI is cooled and moderated by light water, and fueled with uranium-233 metal produced by the irradiation of thorium in other reactors.

KAMINI was the first reactor in the world designed specifically to use uranium-233 fuel. Use of the large thorium reserves to produce nuclear fuel is a key strategy of India's nuclear energy program.

The fuel is the alloy of uranium and aluminium in the form of alloy.

And they say India can't innovate. :D
 
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LOL once thorium revolution begin the middle east will be done. Nothing there of interest to the rest of the non Muslim world except sand and camel.. The only country in the middle east that will be worth a dime is Israel.
True.
Middle East would be less important than Africa is now if a suitable and sustainable alternative to oil is found.
 
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And they say India can't innovate. :D
I still want to see how India will deal with the needed reprocessing of the thorium fuel, as that the major drawback in the use of thorium in the solid fuel reactor. Reprocessing highly radioactive thorium 228TH will require some innovation no doubt.
 
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India doesn't have half of the world's thorium reserves but does have a substantial amount. Thorium is actually very abundant and even with little all states can be energy free.

USGS
Estimates in tonnes (2011)
Reserves
India 963,000
United States 440,000
Australia 300,000
Brazil 16,000
Canada 100,000
Malaysia 4,500
South Africa 35,000
Other Countries 90,000
World Total 1,913,000

So, that's half! :-)
 
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I still want to see how India will deal with the needed reprocessing of the thorium fuel, as that the major drawback in the use of thorium in the solid fuel reactor. Reprocessing highly radioactive thorium 228TH will require some innovation no doubt.
Right now India is using U-233 as fuel produced by Thorium-232 by neutran irrediation. Current PFBRs will use this method to be fuelled.
KAMINI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KAMINI was the first reactor in the world which used U-233 as fuel produced by Thorium-232.
 
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USGS Estimates in tonnes (2011)
Reserves
India 963,000
United States 440,000
Australia 300,000
Brazil 16,000
Canada 100,000
Malaysia 4,500
South Africa 35,000
Other Countries 90,000
World Total 1,913,000

So, that's half! :-)


Those are incorrect figures. Check this from IAEA report.

T1.jpg

t2.jpg
 
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Right now India is using U-233 as fuel produced by Thorium-232 by neutran irrediation. Current PFBRs will use this method to be fuelled.
KAMINI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
KAMINI was the first reactor in the world which used U-233 as fuel produced by Thorium-232.
Since these reactors have to be inducted in large numbers in shortest possible time, the spent fuel is to be reprocessed as quickly as possible.
rpg2.gif


In Fast Breeder Reactors, there is an increase in plutonium content while uranium is consumed. The irradiated fuel is reprocessed for recovering Uranium and Plutonium for reuse in the reactor. In the Fuel Reprocessing Plant, the fuel pins are dismantled from the subassembly. These pins are then chopped and dissolved in nitric acid. Solvent extraction process with tributyl phosphate as solvent, is used to separate Uranium, Plutonium and fission products. A very large fraction of the radioactive fission products and long-lived radioactive elements are fixed in suitable solid matrices such as glass and disposed and monitored in deep geological repositories. A tiny fraction gets released along with the gaseous and liquid effluents from the reprocessing plants, which is controlled and maintained as per the stringent regulatory requirements.

The Plutonium and the Uranium recovered from the reprocessing plant along with fresh uranium are fabricated as fuel elements in fabrication plant. The refabricated fuel is used in the reactor. The fuel cycle is thus closed.
The quote above tell you why only a few country are trying to use thorium in a solid fuel reactor, the reprocessing off spent fuel is a very expensive and dangerous process. Its simply cheaper safer to just dig up uranium or buy uranium than to reprocess at the moment.
This and the fact that most solid fuel reactor are only .5 to .7% efficient, that mean 99% of the fuel use is waste that need to be reprocess. The only feasible way imo to use thorium is in a MSTR(TMSR) or LFTR. Where you burn up 95%+ fuel(thorium) and use uranium 233 as a catalyst to start the reaction.
 
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Good news, hope they come into reality soon.

BTW Thorium is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.

Good we have more than half of world's reserves.This could save our dependance on oil imports and energy needs in long run.

India will indeed benefit immensely if this happens.
 
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Not really what China doing with thorium is very different than what India is doing.. India is trying to use thorium in a solid fuel reactor while China is trying to use thorium in a molten salt reactor ie MSTR(TMSR). Two different method altogether, its almost night and day different.

Which approach is better ??
 
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Not really what China doing with thorium is very different than what India is doing.. India is trying to use thorium in a solid fuel reactor while China is trying to use thorium in a molten salt reactor ie MSTR(TMSR). Two different method altogether, its almost night and day different.
Actually we are going both ways. We are investigating MSR technology too and we have molten salt loops operational at BARC. While we have small test reactor(30 MW) which is first in the world, using Thorium as solid fuel since 1996 and first commercial reactor(500 MW) is almost ready. Though Its challenging but our scientists are confident enough to make it possible asap.
 
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