Norway considering Thorium reactors

Article from treehugger.com about Norway considering Thorium reactors

•There is no danger of a melt-down like the Chernobyl reactor
•It produces minimal radioactive waste
•It can burn Plutonium waste from traditional nuclear reactors with additional energy output
•It is not suitable for the production of weapon grade materials
•The energy contained in one kilogram of Thorium equals that of four thousand tons coal
•The global Thorium reserves could cover the world’s energy needs for thousands of years
•Norway has an estimated 180 000 tons of Thorium

They are looking to make a prototype over the next 15 years which will cost 550 million euros.

From Kirk Sorenson (thorium energy blog author): There were at least three different types of “fluid-fueled reactors” being considered by the AEC in the 1950s, each of which was a thorium reactor. (see “Fluid Fuel Reactors” or TID-8507, the AEC report downselecting to the liquid-fluoride (molten-salt) reactor). There were also the solid-core variants of thorium reactors. Most of these couldn’t breed (convert as much thorium to U-233 as they consumed U-233) so they weren’t truly thorium-burning reactors, but some of them got close. WASH-1097 described several of these reactors.

The Norwegians are looking at accelerator-driven thorium reactors.

Kirk favors the molten-salt reactor. It was the best reactor on the thorium cycle, because it was capable of continuous reprocessing and complete consumption of the thorium resource. It was also the most developed, with two reactors that were built and operated very successfully.

Further reading:
Here is a powerpoint form Kirk Sorenson which he presented at a seminar at Ohio State University in early Oct 2006