For a long time that humanity is in the search for alternative energy sources that are not polluting and do not generate greenhouse gases. Nuclear energy has been settling as one of the most reliable and safe clean sources thanks to its protocols. Now China dismisses uranium as fuel and is feeding its reactors with this and they work very well.
Nuclear energy: its conventional form
This source is directed, in its civil use, to the generation of electricity. To do this, it takes advantage of the heat product of the uranium fission processes, thanks to which a huge amount of energy is released. The latter is used to heat large amounts of water to transform it into steam and thus move gigantic turbines to generate electricity ..
Uranium is the nuclear fuel par excellence, type U – 235 is the isotope used in nuclear reactors and represents only 0.7 % of natural uranium. It can be divided to produce energy, so it is said that it is physically. But China, always at the forefront of technological innovations, has reinvented atomic reactors and now does not use uraniumbut this other element.
China creates an atomic reactor that is not fed with uranium and works
In the Gobi desert, belonging to the Asian giant, the first reactor has been built, which uses Torio as fuel, of the world. It is in charge of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This plant It is 2 MW and it was already lit to prove that it works without failuresbut it also adds another success and it has been recharged being service, that is, in operation.
This mineral is commonly achieved in nature in its Torio – 232 version (the Asian country has megayacimientos of this element for 60,000 years), but it is not physically, which can be achieved by bombing it with neutrons until it transmits to protacinium. Subsequently, the latter is removed, before it loses many neutrons, from the active area of the nuclear reactor.
It is noteworthy that this reactor technology uses the thorium incorporated into molten salts as fuel and, at the same time, also uses them as a refrigerant. This reports a great advantage, since, in case of a break in the pipes or fuel channels, it will tend to spread immediately until you reach its freezing point, so it will no longer be polluting.
In this way they are very safe and minimize the effects of a nuclear accident. It is remarkable that the technology of these Torio reactors with molten salts as refrigerants was obtained by China from an investigation published by the experts of the National Laboratory of Oak Ridge of the United States, there in the 60s and 70s but which was arrested until the year 2000.
The thorium has an additional advantage very important for the safety of the world
This element is not likely to be used as a weapon by China, because although its fission generates protacinium, it transmutes to U-233 that can be used in the manufacture of nuclear weapons but has a very small explosive capacity (for this reason it is used that the U-233 is used for these needs) so it makes no sense to give this use and it is not easy to convert.
In conclusion, thanks to the refrigeration technology for molten salts that Torio uses as fuel (for which the Asian country will not resign as Spain did), China is saying goodbye to the uranium. In addition, it is an element that is less radioactive and is achieved about three or four times more in the earth’s crust than uranium. On the other hand, these reactors do not suffer nuclear accidents with waste release.
