Thorium vs. Uranium

摘要

For better or worse, the commercial nuclear power industry has wedded itself to uranium fuel. Other than a number of test programs, uranium has been the basic building block of the nuclear industry for the past 50 years. That doesn't mean, however, that there aren't alternatives. If one considers the many plausible combinations for the main components of a nuclear reactor - fuel, coolant, and moderator - there are about 1,000 possible reactor configurations. In recent years, a number of entities have been promoting the benefits of thorium-based nuclear fuel cycles. Thorium is not a new idea.