the.com/thorium
the nuclear fuel that can't melt down and refuses to make bombs
means A naturally occurring radioactive metallic element (atomic number 90) that can serve as a nuclear fuel and shows up in things like gas-lantern mantles and certain alloys.
from Named in the early 19th century by the Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who isolated the element and called it after Thor, the Norse god of thunder — a fittingly mighty namesake for a metal he'd extracted from a mineral that itself had been dubbed thorite. So the name travels: from the hammer-wielding god, to the rock, to the element on your periodic table.
- named after
- Thor, Norse god of thunder
- abundance
- three times more common than uranium
- no bombs
- can't sustain a weapons chain reaction alone
- power density
- one ton equals 200 tons of uranium
- gas mantles
- once glowed in camping lanterns worldwide
thorium-232 — most abundant isotope, makes up 99.98% of natural thorium
monazite sands — beaches in kerala india contain 7-8% thorium by weight