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Thorium Reactors</p>
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01 Introduction</p>
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In this episode we will describe the use of thorium in nuclear power, including what thorium is, how it differs from uranium, and what sort of reactors can use it.</p>
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03 What is thorium</p>
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05 How thorium differs from uranium</p>
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07 Sources of Thorium</p>
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09 Why there is interest in using thorium as a fuel</p>
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10 Abundance of Thorium</p>
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11 Some Countries Have a Lot of It</p>
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12 Thorium Breeder Reactors are Simpler than Uranium Breeder Reactors</p>
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14 Supposed Lower Nuclear Weapons Potential</p>
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16 What is Thorium Breeding</p>
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20 Breeding Ratio</p>
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21 What sorts of reactors can use thorium</p>
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22 PHWRs - Heavy Water Reactors (Including CANDU)</p>
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24 HTR - High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactors</p>
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26 MSR - Molten Salt Reactors</p>
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29 Light Water Reactors (PWR, BWR)</p>
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31 Fast Neutron Reactors</p>
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32 The Challenges Facing Thorium Fuelled Reactors</p>
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37 Thorium in India - An Example Use Case</p>
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39 Why is India Pursuing Using Thorium?</p>
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40 How a Thorium Fuel Cycle Would Work in India</p>
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43 Current Status</p>
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46 Conclusion</p>
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Thorium is an abundant material that is seen as an alternative to uranium in nuclear power.</p>
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Experimental thorium power reactors date back to at least the 1960s.</p>
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No new reactor technology is required to use thorium.</p>
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Existing well proven reactor designs which have been in use for decades can use thorium as fuel.</p>
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The common light water reactor designs that popular in some countries however are not well suited to using thorium.&nbsp;</p>
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Initial interest in thorium was mainly driven by a perception that uranium would be in short supply in future, and slow neutron thorium reactors were cheaper and simpler than fast neutron uranium reactors.</p>
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However, huge new high grade supplies of uranium were found in a number of countries, causing uranium prices to fall and reducing interest in finding alternatives.</p>
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While some R&amp;D continues on thorium fuel in a number of countries, the mainstream of development continues to be on uranium based fuel.</p>
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Some countries with abundant thorium reserves though maintain a major interest in thorium, with India being the prime example.&nbsp;</p>
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In the next episode we will describe small modular reactors.</p>
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