Radiological impact at the Extraction stage of the Thorium fuel cycle

摘要

Among the natural thorium resources, monazite and the residues of rare-earth extraction will very likely be exploited first in case of a significant use of thorium- based nuclear fuels. The different waste streams have been identified from the present industrial practices used in the production of nuclear grade thorium form monazite extracted from beach sands. The radionuclides of utmost importance in various waste streams are ~232Th, ~228Ra, and ~220Rn from the thorium series and ~238U, ~230Th, ~226R, and ~222Rn form the uranium series.