История изменений

Some benefits of thorium fuel when compared with uranium were summarized as follows:

Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor;
Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste;
Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, whereas the mixture of natural uranium isotopes must be enriched to function in most common reactor designs. The same cycle could also use the fissionable U-238 component of the natural uranium, and also contained in the depleted reactor fuel;
Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default in an accelerator driven reactor.

When used in a breeder-like reactor, however, unlike uranium-based light water reactors, thorium requires irradiation and reprocessing before the above-noted advantages of thorium-232 can be realized, which initially makes solid thorium fuels more expensive than uranium fuels. But experts note that «the second thorium reactor may activate a third thorium reactor. This could continue in a chain of reactors for a millennium if we so choose.» They add that because of thorium's abundance, it will not be exhausted in 1,000 years.

Вот, короче читайте википедию. ☺ Я тут не всё до конца понимаю, но походу этот ториум не может сам по себе поддерживать цепную реакцию. Ждём экспертов по ядерной физике.

Some benefits of thorium fuel when compared with uranium were summarized as follows:

Weapons-grade fissionable material (233U) is harder to retrieve safely and clandestinely from a thorium reactor;
Thorium produces 10 to 10,000 times less long-lived radioactive waste;
Thorium mining produces a single pure isotope, whereas the mixture of natural uranium isotopes must be enriched to function in most common reactor designs. The same cycle could also use the fissionable U-238 component of the natural uranium, and also contained in the depleted reactor fuel;
Thorium cannot sustain a nuclear chain reaction without priming, so fission stops by default in an accelerator driven reactor.

When used in a breeder-like reactor, however, unlike uranium-based light water reactors, thorium requires irradiation and reprocessing before the above-noted advantages of thorium-232 can be realized, which initially makes solid thorium fuels more expensive than uranium fuels. But experts note that «the second thorium reactor may activate a third thorium reactor. This could continue in a chain of reactors for a millennium if we so choose.» They add that because of thorium's abundance, it will not be exhausted in 1,000 years.

Вот, короче читайте википедию. ☺ Я тут не всё до конца понимаю, но походу этот ториум не может сам по себе поддерживать цепную реакцию.