THORIUM AS AN ENERGY SOURCE - Opportunities for Norway ...

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Thorium as an Energy Source - Opportunities for Norway Nuclear Reactors for Thorium (Chapter 5) In the 1960s and 1970s, the development of thorium fuel for nuclear energy was of great interest worldwide. It was shown that thorium could be used practically in any type of existing reactors. A large amount of work was carried out and resulted in many interesting developments, including prototype High Temperature Reactors, Light Water Reactors and Molten Salt Reactors. Most projects using thorium in their fuel cycles had been terminated by the 1980s. The reason for this seems to be threefold: (1) the thorium fuel cycle could not compete economically with the more well-known uranium cycle, (2) in many countries there was a lack of political support for the development of nuclear technology in the aftermath of the Chernobyl accident and (3) an increased worldwide concern regarding the proliferation risk associated with the reprocessing of spent fuel. Nowadays, the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel is considered in a more or less active manner in three programs: • In the long term the Indian program aims at burning uranium-233 and plutonium along with thorium in Advanced Heavy Water Reactors. These reactors will obtain about 75 % of their power from thorium; the uranium-233 and plutonium being previously produced in Fast Breeder Reactors. • The Molten Salt Reactor, which is one of the six concepts developed by the Generation IV International Forum (GIF). In the GIF program the world’s leading nuclear nations are gathering together technology to meet the world's future energy needs. Currently thorium is not a prioritized topic in GIF. • The Accelerator Driven System (ADS) concept, which couples an accelerator, a spallation source and a sub-critical reactor, is being developed within the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) research Framework Program. At present, this concept focuses more on high-level waste transmutation than on energy production. Thorium-232, used as fertile material for breeding uranium-233, has the main advantage, over uranium-238, that virtually no plutonium or other transuranic elements are produced, and the waste products are therefore free of long-lived α-emitters. Thorium used in ADS can facilitate plutonium or transuranium burning without the use of uranium-238. Some advantages of these systems, apart from the low radiotoxicity of the waste, are the increased safety features and a higher flexibility for breeding. The Back End of the Thorium Fuel Cycle (Chapter 6) Reprocessing thorium fuels will require more development than previously anticipated. Even if the familiar principles of solvent extraction are to be adopted (THOREX, thorium extraction), existing methods cannot be applied without modification. This would require a very substantial amount of development work. Waste management will in principal follow known procedures and methods. Although fluoride and aluminium may have some effect on the conditioning of the high-level waste form, the key concern is the radiotoxicity of protactinium-231. This long-lived radionuclide is a candidate for partitioning into other actinides, but the present method appears not to be applicable to protactinium. Intermediate-level wastes would generally be the same as in the commonly used plutonium-uranium extraction process (PUREX) and their treatment needs no special investigation. 2
Radiation Protection of Man and the Environment (Chapter 7) Executive Summary Radiation protection requirements for the thorium cycle will be lower than those of the uranium cycle. The enhanced levels of thorium and uranium and their daughters in the Fen Complex contribute to the highest outdoor and indoor gamma exposures to man ever reported in Norway, and are among the highest in Europe. However, natural background radiation is in principle not regulated. Doses to man and the environment from future potential exposures associated with the thorium fuel cycle will be regulated by the Radiation Protection Act and associated Regulations. However, authorisation requirements for mining and milling thorium are not included in the current radiation protection regulatory system and revision of the Act will be needed. Regulation (Chapter 8) Requirements for the establishment of thorium based industries in Norway are set by a series of acts and regulations, in particular the Nuclear Energy Act and the Radiation Protection Act. The Act Concerning Nuclear Energy Activities from 1972 regulates activities associated with the existing Norwegian research reactors. A conventional thorium-uranium based nuclear installation will most probably be covered by the current licensing requirements, whereas a pure thorium based system, such as an Accelerator Driven System (ADS) will not, and the Nuclear Energy Act would, therefore, probably have to be revised or amended. Non-proliferation (Chapter 9) Uranium based fuel cycles require enrichment and reprocessing facilities which use technology originally developed for military purposes and which leave large amounts of fissile plutonium isotopes in spent fuel. The thorium-uranium (Th-232/U-233) fuel cycles do not produce plutonium. Technically, one of the best ways to dispose of a plutonium stock pile is to burn it in a thoriumplutonium MOX fuel. The proliferation resistance of uranium-233 depends on the reactor and reprocessing technologies. In the development of a reactor technology and its fuel cycle for civil purposes, the thorium fuel cycle should have an advantage in proliferation resistance that could be exploited. However, due to the lack of experience with industrial-scale thorium fuel cycle facilities, similar safeguard measures as for plutonium are considered mandatory until otherwise documented. Economical Aspects (Chapter 10) Due to a lack of data, it seems impractical to develop meaningful cost projections for any nuclear energy system using thorium. It seems obvious that the contribution of the raw material to the cost structure of the electricity generated will be small, comparable to that of the uranium cycle or even lower. The main economical challenges to the development of a thorium based energy production will be the acquisition of funding necessary to carry out the required research and development. As a comparison, in the 1970s Germany spent around 500 million euros in current money to develop a thorium fuel cycle and 2.5 billions euros for the High Temperature Reactor itself. Research, Development, Education and Training (Chapter 11) Several studies (e.g. EU, OECD/NEA) have identified the problem that an insufficient number of scientists are being trained to meet the needs of the current and future European nuclear industries. Norway also lost most of its specialists in nuclear sciences after the nuclear moratorium more than 25 years ago. The European higher education knowledge base has become 3
Page 1 and 2: 2008 THORIUM AS AN ENERGY SOURCE -
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTS Table of Contents
Page 5 and 6: Table of Contents 14.2 APPENDIX B2:
Page 7 and 8: The Thorium Report Committee was gi
Page 9 and 10: Foreword energy area. The price vol
Page 11: 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Executive Summ
Page 15 and 16: Executive Summary nuclear engineeri
Page 17 and 18: Introduction In the context of such
Page 19 and 20: 2.3 The EU Situation Introduction T
Page 21 and 22: Oil, Gas, NGL, Condensate (Million
Page 23 and 24: TWh 160 150 140 130 120 110 100 90
Page 25 and 26: Figure 2.8: Number of Operating Rea
Page 27 and 28: Tonnes 1 200 000 1 000 000 800 000
Page 29 and 30: US $ / kg UF 6 160 140 120 100 80 6
Page 31 and 32: 2.8 Worldwide Activities on Thorium
Page 33 and 34: 1. Alkaline complexes and their peg
Page 35 and 36: Thorium Resources in Norway The tho
Page 37 and 38: Thorium Resources in Norway The pot
Page 39 and 40: Thorium Resources in Norway A serie
Page 41 and 42: 4.1.1 Mining and Extraction The Fro
Page 43 and 44: The Front End of the Thorium Fuel C
Page 45 and 46: The Front End of the Thorium Fuel C
Page 47 and 48: 4.3.2 HTGR Fuel Performance The Fro
Page 49 and 50: 5.1 Properties of the Fertile Mater
Page 51 and 52: Nuclear Reactors for Thorium Table
Page 53 and 54: 5.3.1 Light Water Reactor (LWR) Nuc
Page 55 and 56: Nuclear Reactors for Thorium 2. Cyc
Page 57 and 58: 5.3.2.4 Gas Turbine-Modular Helium
Page 59 and 60: Figure 5.7: General Layout of the A
Page 61 and 62: 5.4.2 Generation IV Reactors Nuclea
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium econom
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium • Ad
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium temper
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium Figure
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium the de
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium remova
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium result
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The most important drawbacks of the
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Nuclear Reactors for Thorium mater
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6. THE BACK END OF THE THORIUM FUEL
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The Back End of the Thorium Fuel Cy
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Radiation Protection of Man and the
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8. REGULATION The use of thorium as
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• Safety, security and emergency
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Regulation • The Agreement betwee
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Non-proliferation Nations with secu
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Economical Aspects conventional rea
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11. Radioecology 12. Decommissionin
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Research, Development, Education an
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Conclusions and Recommendations tho
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13. APPENDIX A: INTRODUCTION TO NUC
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14. APPENDIX B: NUCLEAR REACTOR TEC
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Figure 14.3: Boiling Water Reactor
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Appendix B: Nuclear Reactor Technol
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Table 15.1: The Current Course Pack
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• N12 Reactor Thermal Hydraulics,
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16. APPENDIX D: RADIATION PROTECTIO
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Regulations on Radiation Protection
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”Section 4. (Licence for nuclear
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2. Dues shall be paid for the super
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use the best available technology s
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Summary: Legislation that is or may
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216 Po α 0.145 s 6.906 (805) 212 P
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18. ACRONYMS AND ABBREVIATIONS Acro
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Po polonium Po-208 polonium-208 Po-
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19. REFERENCES References Chapter 2
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References [35] J.D. SEASE et al.,
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References [68] E. Merle-Lucotte, D
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References [97] "On-going activites
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References [122] L. CINOTTI, “Inh
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References [149] M. Crick, UNSCEAR,
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