Liquid Fueled Thorium Reactor

Thorium fuel cycle requires innovative, remote controlled and maintenance-free technologies due to the presence of 232 U and other hard γ-emitting isotopes with its main fissile constituent 233 U. Microwave heating, due to interaction-absorption and volumetric in nature is material specific. It has an effect on the process and the quality of the product as well. Use of microwave heating has shown promising outcomes for many processing steps like pyrohydrolysis and vitrification in thorium fuel cycle. Microwave applicators can be adapted for use in glove-boxes and hot-cells. This paper presents an overview of the application of microwave heating in thorium based fuel cycle.

Nuclear energy has the potential to provide the necessary power to meet the requirements of most of the developed and developing countries. However, some major roadblocks limit the widespread use of nuclear energy. Long-term solutions for the storage of nuclear waste byproducts have not been demonstrated. Used nuclear fuel and some nuclear waste currently take on the magnitude of tens of thousands of years to return to a safe level of radioactivity. Transportation and storage of nuclear waste will require significant long term resource investment and government commitment. The regulation of nuclear weapons propagation by existing treaties and organizations harshly limit or forbid developing countries’ access to civil uses of nuclear power. Proliferation of nuclear materials from the waste byproducts presents additional safety, security, and political concerns. Concerns about mitigating the risks of nuclear power use is currently in the public domain due to high profile incidents (Chernobyl, Fukushima, etc.) and will be skewed by the public and media perceptions beyond the overall economic merits. A significant concern about the use of nuclear power is the probability of a severe nuclear accident occurring every 10,000 reactor years resulting in a mishap happening every 25 years given the more than 434 nuclear power plants around the globe (as of February 2014).

Thorium exists on the earth in isotopic form Th-232, its half-life is 1.4000 000x1010 years, that is, 3 times the age of the earth, ThO2 thorium oxide also called torianite has one of the highest melting points of all oxides 3350 ° C so it is used in filaments of light bulbs, welding electrodes, around 1828 when a priest found a black mineral that he could not identify in the Norwegian Lovoya Peninsula, Jons Jakob Berzelius a chemist of Swedish origin He obtained a sample of this, discovering it was a new chemical element to which I name Thorium in honor of Thor the Norse god of thunder.  1898 Gerhard Schmidt German chemist and Marie Curie discovered the radioactivity of thorium. The microscope lenses, telescopes contain thorium oxide this provides a high index of refraction and wavelength dispersion, the ThO2 is relatively inert has a higher thermal conductivity unlike uranium dioxide <UO2>, the gas release fission is smaller and thermal expansion lower.Phosphate ore is the most common source of thorium, with 12% monacite with thorium phosphate being the highest containment, the largest resource of monacite is found in the southern and eastern coasts of India with 12MT (metric ton) of 16MT from all over the world.

As indicated in the 2014 UCOM Annual Report, Canada’s continuing development of their especially high-grade and large tonnage uranium deposits, with even new discoveries in Ontario and Newfoundland, suggest that Canada will likely be the #1 uranium producer in the world for decades to come. Known foreign uranium resources were discussed in some detail in the previous 2013 UCOM Mid-Year Report.
U.S. yellowcake production has grown steadily over the past six years and may continue to grow, especially if the price continues to rise. Two uranium mills in Utah and Wyoming are in stand-by mode, and one in-situ leach plant in Wyoming was under construction in 2013 and has since begun operating. Demand for uranium concentrate is rising slowly, so increasing domestic production of uranium concentrate may reduce the market share of foreign-origin uranium in the future, as current inventories are used by the existing 100 nuclear power plants in U.S. and Canada and to fuel those plants currently under construction.

Known uranium reserves in seven western states are estimated to total nearly 340 million pounds; about one-third of the reserves are in Wyoming. Other known reserves are in Arizona, Colorado, Nebraska, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. Uranium deposits have also been identified in Alaska, North Dakota, and South Dakota, and in several other states, mostly in the West, as discussed in the 2014 UCOM Annual Report (more). History shows that reserves of almost any commodity are not static; they increase with time as exploration increases, resulting in new discoveries, many of which are drilled producing additional reserves, assuming certain prices and mining conditions. These issues have been evaluated further in the 2011 UCOM Annual Report .

The impact of Cross Ignition process (CI) in the gas turbine operation and environmental issue is still investigated for extending the efficiency of gas turbine engines and meanwhile decreasing the environment pollution.This paper presents various constructive influential parameters and analysis of their related interaction during CI. A developed computational model for determination of cross-ignition time (CIT) is proposed, based on previous relevant models for thermal analysis and for distinguishing of heat fluxes in combustion processes. Due to the first analysis of theoretical results, experimental investigation for various operating conditions were essential to validate the developed computational model of the CIT. Thus, a simple experimental test rig is designed for this purpose, and for validation of certain conditions of the computational model. Meanwhile, for expanding the investigations in higher energy conversion and reducing expensive test-procedures, that are conducted during critical test running, a new strategy is proposed for simulating the thermal heat fluxes throughout the burners compartment model by implementation of Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD). Finally, new constructive criteria based on the validated investigations will enable the future generation of gas turbine combustors to operate in critical conditions.