Thorium

THORIUM

by Anton Antonio

May 12, 2015

When I first heard of the term “thorium”, I thought someone was playing a word game on me.  If “thorium” is indeed a legitimate word and rooted on “thor”, what’s going on here?  Previous to this, I have always known “Thor” as one of my favourite heroes among the Avengers.

“Thor is a fictional superhero that appears in American comic books published by Marvel Comics.  The character, based on the Norse mythological deity of the same name, is the Asgardian God of Thunder and possesses the enchanted hammer Mjolnir, which grants him the ability of flight and weather manipulation amongst his other superhuman attributes.”  (Wikipedia)  Those of you who have watched the movie series “Thor” and “Avengers” are most likely familiar with Thor as I also knew him.

But wait, does Thor really have anything to do with thorium except for the freak coincidence of labels?  “Thorium is a chemical element with the symbol Th and atomic number 90.  A radioactive metal, thorium is one of only four radioactive elements that still occur in quantity in nature as a primordial element (the other three being bismuth, plutonium and uranium).  It was discovered in 1828 by the Norwegian mineralogist Morten Thrane Esmark and identified by the Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berselius, who named it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder.”  (Wikipedia)

Thorium, until lately, has been used as an energy source to fuel machines.  “The thorium fuel cycle is a nuclear fuel cycle that uses the isotope of thorium, 232Th, as the fertile material.  In the reactor, 232Th is transmutated into the fissile artificial uranium isotope 223U which is the nuclear fuel.  Unlike natural uranium, natural thorium contains only trace amounts of fissile material (such as 231Th), which are insufficient to initiate a nuclear chain reaction.  Additional fissile material or another neutron source are necessary to initiate the fuel cycle.  In the thorium-fuelled reactor, 232Th absorbs neutrons eventually to produce 233U.  This parallels the process in uranium breeder reactors whereby fertile 238U absorbs neutrons to form 239Pu.  Depending on the design of the reactor and fuel cycle, the generated 233U either fissions into situ or is chemically separated from the used nuclear fuel and formed into new nuclear fuel.”  (Wikipedia)  This, if scientifically safe and acceptable, does seem to be an alternative source of power and energy.

Yesterday, I ran across an article (link:  http://www.jewsnews.co.il/2015/05/10/this-car-runs-for-100-years-without-refueling-and-it-runs-on-thorium/) that encourages the idea of thorium being used in cars; the sales pitch was:  “This car runs for 100 years without refuelling and it runs on Thorium.”…

“If your car was powered by thorium, you would never need to refuel it.  The vehicle would burn out long before the chemical did.  The thorium would last so long, in fact, it would probably outlive you.  That’s why a company called Laser Power Systems has created a concept for a thorium-powered car engine.  The element is radioactive, and the team uses bits of it to build a laserbeam that heats water, produces steam, and powers an energy-producing turbine.  Thorium is one of the most dense materials on the planet.  A small sample of it packs 20 million time more energy than a similarly-seized sample of coal, making it an ideal energy source.  The thing is, Dr. Charles Stevens, the CEO of Laser Power Systems, told Mashable the thorium engines won’t be in cars anytime soon.  “Cars are not our primary interest,” Stevens said.  “The automakers don’t want to buy them.”  He said too much of the automobile industry is focused on making money off of gas engines, and it will take at least a couple of decades for thorium technology to be used enough in other industries that vehicle manufacturers will begin to consider revamping the way they think about engines.  “We’re building this to power the rest of the world,“ Stevens said.  He believes a thorium turbine about the size of an airconditioning unit could more provide cheap power for whole restaurants, hotels, office buildings, even small towns in areas of the world without electricity.  At some point, thorium could power individual homes.  Stevens understands that people may be wary of Thorium because it is radioactive --- but any such worry would be unfounded.  “The radiation that we develop off of one of these things can be shielded by a single sheet off of aluminium foil,” Stevens said.  “You will get more radiation from one of those dental X-rays than this.”

More research and development is perhaps needed to ease the scepticism of people on nuclear energy… whatever is the sort of application that is intented.  In the meantime, Laser Power Systems and Mr. Stevens will have their work cut out for them.  They surely will have a hard time convincing people about the safe use of radioactive materials such as thorium.

Just my little thoughts…

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