Technology, Uses, Irradiated Fuel, Reprocessing

In connection with the recent treatment of radium and the actinides, the Gmelin Institute is carrying out the description of thorium and its compounds. The supplement volume A 2 comprising the history, isotopes and the recovery of thorium and the supplement volumes C 1, C 2 and C 3 describing the compounds with the noble gases, hydrogen, oxygen compounds and nitrogen compounds have already been published; also published is supplement volume C 5 describing the compounds with sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and boron. The supplement volume D 1 and D 2 describing the properties of thorium ions in solution and the solvent extraction of thorium, as well as supplement volume E describing the coordination compounds have also been published. The present volume deals with the technical fabrication of important thorium compounds and their uses in the nuclear and non-nuclear fields. It also describes in detail the behavior of thorium nuclear fuels during operation of a nuclear power plant as well as the reprocessing of burnt-up thorium fuels. By far the most important Th compound is ThO2 due to its high chemical and thermal stability as well as its high melting point near 3000°C, the highest for any metal oxide. The inherent radioactivity of 232Th and the formation of radioactive daughter products are important limiting factors in the technical scale use of thorium compounds because of necessary radiation protection measures and of health physics. 232Th is transformed by neutrons to the fissile uranium isotope 233U. Thorium therefore is an excellent breeding material, especially for high-temperature reactors. A lot of basic and technical investigations for reprocessing of spent thorium fuel have to be done; no such reprocessing plants exist as yet.