Uses for thorium
Thorium oxide, also known as thoria, has an extremely high melting point of 3300 degrees Celsius. Because of this, it has been used in light bulb elements, lantern mantles, arc-light lamps, welding electrodes, and heat resistent ceramics, however some concerns have been raised over its radioactivity.
Glass containing thorium oxide is used also in high quality lenses for cameras and scientific instruments due to its high refractive index and wavelength dispersion.
In addition to this, Thorium is used as well as an element for alloying in TIG welding electrodes, which is an arc welding process using a special electrode to produce the weld
Thorium presently is not really actively being used for energy production despite the fact that it could provide the world with an ultra-safe, ultra-cheap source of nuclear power.
It can be used to create energy through the fission process, similar to the way uranium is currently being used for energy but with vast advantages over it such as being safer, more efficient, cheaper, more plentiful, unable to make weapons with, and healthier for our planet
"Thorium is like wet wood […it] needs to be turned into fissile uranium just as wet wood needs to be dried in a furnace."
— Ratan Kumar Sinha, current Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India.[14]
-effort is being put into developing an effective system for making energy from thorium, but is not nearly proportional for the potentially planet-saving powers of thorium
Many outspoken scientists who are passionate about thorium promote a form of reactor called a Liquid Fluoride reactor which uses various salts as its basic nuclear fuel. Fission reactions that take place in the fuel salt making the salt hotter. After this, the heat is moved to a coolant salt out of the reactor, which is then used to heat gas that turns a turbine. This turbine turns an electrical generator, making electricity.
With thorium, their is much less dangerous radioactive by products since the byproducts of the thorium fuel cycle would take days to weeks to degrade to safe levels as opposed to the centuries required by the by-products of the uranium cycle. With the right equipment, risks of environmental contamination and disasters like those of Chernobyl and Fukushima could be eradicated
In addition to its safety, thorium’s cycle is much more effective, with over 90% of the input fuel being tapped for energy in the liquid fluoride reactors. In today’s current reactors used for the uranium fuel cycle, less than 1% is harnessed.
Another interesting benefit of using thorium reactors in the future is that the byproducts of the thorium reactors can’t be used for weaponization, unlike depleted uranium, which was and is frequently incorporated by the U.S military, wreaking havoc on the health of the locals and causing disturbing birth defects.
Effort is being put into developing an effective system for making energy from thorium, but is not nearly proportional for the potentially planet-saving powers of thorium.