Scientists have built the first-ever thorium reactor. Thorium is both more easily accessible and less dangerous than ...

This is partly because thorium itself is not a nuclear fuel, although it can be used to create such a fuel. Thorium-232, the only naturally occurring isotope of thorium, is considered ‘fertile’ for ...

At some point a blanket of thorium (Th-232) is introduced in the FBRs. Thorium is fertile but not fissile. In FBRs, upon being irradiated by neutrons, it transmutes into fissile uranium isotope (U ...

While the fission of Th-232 produces protinactium, which decays into U-233 and can be used in nuclear weapons, U-233 isn’t nearly as explosive as other isotopes (the isotope most commonly used ...

Thorium-232 (the isotope of thorium that most commonly occurs on its own) is not capable of undergoing fission by itself. By capturing an extra neutron, however, it can morph into protactinium, which ...