Thorium instead of plutonium

When uranium is used to generate energy by nuclear fission, plutonium, fission products, and transuranium elements are also produced and mainly the so-called minor actinides neptunium, americium, and curium. Other transuranium elements, however, are also highly radioactive and of special radiological significance. It takes over a million years of natural disintegration until they reach radioactivity levels which correspond to those of uranium. Since minor actinides are produced as disintegration products of plutonium, it is very important to reduce the existing amounts of plutonium as well as the plutonium and minor actinides produced by the operation of light-water reactors.

The main focus of the research is on the use of thorium as a basic material for plutonium i.e. as a source of fissionable material from which no plutonium or minor actinides are produced. In addition to plutonium degrading, the minor actinides are expected to "burn". These transmutation effects are especially marked on the inside of the above mentioned MOX fuel rods in light-water reactors as well as in boiling water reactors. For this reason, a mixed thorium/plutonium fuel is being irradiated in a MOX fuel rod at the Obrigheim Nuclear Power Plant as part of the Thorium Cycle Project (which is part of the European Commission