Thorium

Thoriumis achemical elementinactinidegroup. It is a weaklyradioactivemetal.It has a shiny, silvery white color. It has thechemical symbolThand theatomic number90. Natural thorium has anatomic weightof 232. Thorium is named afterThor,the Norse god of thunder. Itsoresare found in nature (that is, on Earth), especially inIndia,theUnited States,andAustralia.

Thorium would make a good source ofnuclear fuelbecause it makes much less waste and is four times as common asuranium.It does not need the wasteful process ofenrichment.It makes 3,200,000 times as much energy as coal and 200 times as much energy as uranium. Scientists believe that there is enough of it to power the world for thousands of years. Thorium has been used for various purposes since the 19th century. It is an alloying agent inmagnesiumand is also used as an industrialcatalyst.

Thorium is safer thanuranium.This is because thorium cannot undergo nuclear fission on its own. Usually,plutoniumis need to start and maintain a reaction. This is why thorium is considered better fornuclear reactors.Also, nuclear waste from thorium reactors contains far smaller amounts of dangeroustransuranic elementsthan waste fromuraniumreactors.

Estimates of Thorium that can be mined

Estimatesofmineral resourceshave been made about how much Thorium isavailableto be mined from different countries,

Country	Total thorium resources, tonnes	Remarks
India	[800,000 or] 846,477
Brazil	[600,000 or] 632,000
Australia	[500,000 or] 595,000
United States of America	[500,000 or] 595,000
Turkey	381,000	Historical data
Egypt	380,000	Historical data
Venezuela	300,000	Historical data
Canada	[ 170,000 or] 172,000
Russia	[ 150,000 or] 155,000

Other websites

• EnergyFromThorium
• Thorium - WebElements
• Thorium - World-Nuclear.org