How much energy does a thorium reactor produce?
How much energy does a thorium reactor produce?
The reactor will operate with a power of 300 MWe using thorium-plutonium or thorium-U-233 seed fuel in mixed oxide form. It is heavy water moderated (& light water cooled) and will eventually be capable of self-sustaining U-233 production.
How much energy does a nuclear reactor produce in a day?
For example, if the R. E. Ginna reactor operates at 582 MW capacity for 24 hours, it will generate 13,968 megawatthours (MWh). If the reactor generated that amount of electricity every day of the year, it would generate 5,098,320 MWh.
Can thorium produce energy?
Thorium is a basic element of nature, like Iron and Uranium. Like Uranium, its properties allow it to be used to fuel a nuclear chain reaction that can run a power plant and make electricity (among other things). Thorium itself will not split and release energy.
How much power can a fusion reactor produce?
At present, fusion devices produce more than ten megawatts of fusion power. ITER will be capable of producing 500 megawatts of fusion power. Although this will be on the scale needed for a power station, there are still some technological issues to address before a commercial power plant can operate.
What power does thorium produce?
Thorium is contained in and produced from monazite, a naturally occurring mineral. In order to be used as a fuel to generate electricity, thorium must go through transmutation by the absorption of a neutron. Uranium-233 is the useful by-product of this, as it is fissile and can sustain a nuclear chain reaction.
How much energy can a thorium reactor produce?
Benefits. It is estimated that one ton of thorium can produce as much energy as 35 tons of uranium in a liquid fluoride thorium reactor. Conventional reactors utilizes less than one percent of uranium, whereas a well working reprocessing reactor can utilize 99% of its thorium fuel.
What’s the difference between thorium and Uranium Energy?
Conventional reactors utilizes less than one percent of uranium, whereas a well working reprocessing reactor can utilize 99% of its thorium fuel. [6] However, when comparing breeder reactors for Uranium and Thorium, the energy per kilogram would be similar.
Where was the first thorium based nuclear power plant built?
During that period, the government of the United States also built an experimental molten salt reactor using U-233 fuel, the fissile material created by bombarding thorium with neutrons. The MSRE reactor, built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, operated critical for roughly 15,000 hours from 1965 to 1969.
Why did the US government shut down thorium research?
However, in 1973 the United States government shut down all thorium related nuclear research due to the success of the uranium reactor to produce energy, so the vast majority of the nuclear reactors that exists today use enriched uranium (U-235) or reprocessed plutonium (Pu-239) as their source of energy. [2]