Washington - Saba:
A new report by the Energy Research Unit revealed that an Arab country possesses a large quantity of thorium, also known as a "uranium alternative," which represents the future of the nuclear industry.
With the growing need for safer and more sustainable energy sources, thorium has begun to present itself as a potential alternative to uranium in the nuclear energy industry. Since its discovery by Swedish chemist Jöns Jacob Berzelius in 1828, it has fascinated scientists with its unique properties, particularly since it is three times more abundant than uranium.
Thorium is a naturally occurring, silvery mineral with slight radioactivity. It is found in small quantities in most rocks and soils, with thorium-232 being its only naturally occurring isotope.
One of its characteristics is that it decays very slowly, with its half-life—the time it takes for half of a particular radioactive element to decay into another—being approximately three times the age of the Earth.
According to a report by the Washington-based Energy Research Unit, when thorium decays, small amounts of other isotopes, such as thorium-228, thorium-230, and thorium-234, are formed. However, these are marginal in mass, eventually decaying to lead-208.
A report by the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Nuclear Energy Agency of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) estimated global thorium resources in the world, as follows:
1.
Egypt: 380,000 tons.
2.
Turkey: 374,000 tons.
3.
Venezuela: 300,000 tons.
4.
Canada: 172,000 tons.
5.
Russia: 155,000 tons.
6.
South Africa: 148,000 tons.
7.
China: 100,000 tons.
8.
Norway: 87,000 tons.
9.
Greenland: 86,000 tons.
10.
Finland: 60,000 tons.
11.
Sweden: 50,000 tons.
12.
Kazakhstan: 50,000 tons.
13.
Other countries: 1.725 million tons.
It is worth noting that China recently discovered massive thorium reserves estimated at one million tons in the Bayan Obo mine in Inner Mongolia, which could be sufficient to generate electricity for 60,000 years.
Thorium represents a promising option in the nuclear energy sector, providing a strategic alternative to nuclear fuel supplies, and its use in most types of reactors enhances safety levels.
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