THE EFFECTS OF TYPICAL THORIUM IMPURITIES ON THORIUM-BASED NUCLEAR FUELS

Abundant thorium as an alternative nuclear fuel

It has long been known that thorium-232 is a fertile radioactive material that can produce energy in nuclear reactors for conversion to electricity. Thorium-232 is well suited to a variety of reactor types including molten fluoride salt designs, heavy water CANDU configurations, and helium-cooled TRISO-

The Thorium Benzyne

Thorium abundances on the lunar surface

Measurements of absolute thorium abundances on the lunar surface are presented using both the highand low-altitude data taken with the Lunar Prospector Gamma-Ray Spectrometer. An analysis of the uncertainties shows that the measured uncertainties are < 0.5 μg/g and are close to the theoretical limit of Poisson statistics. Currently, the overall systematic uncertainties are likely dominated by v...

Multiply charged thorium crystals for nuclear laser spectroscopy.

We have produced laser-cooled crystals of 232Th3+ in a linear rf Paul trap. This is the first time that a multiply charged ion has been laser cooled. Our work opens an avenue for excitation of the nuclear transition in a trapped, cold 229Th3+ ion. Laser excitation of nuclear states would establish a new bridge between atomic and nuclear physics, with the promise of new levels of metrological pr...

Thorium speciation in seawater

Since the 1960s, thorium isotopes occupy a special place in the oceanographer’s toolbox as tracers for determining rates and mechanisms of oceanic scavenging, particle dynamics, and carbon fluxes. Due to their unique and constant production rates from soluble parent nuclides of uranium and radium, their disequilibrium can be used to calculate rates and time scales of sinking particles. In addit...