Europe's first thorium-powered nuclear power plant has been activated after more than 40 years

It is likely that this will become a solution to solve nuclear energy problems for many countries in the world in the future.

An energy company in the Netherlands recently conducted a series of experiments using thorium salt to generate energy from nuclear reactions, which seemed to have been forgotten since the early 70s of the last century. . With the use of thorium as a substitute for uranium, we will be able to create a cleaner and safer source of energy, in the context that some countries like China have begun to return to research in developing power. nuclear quantity.

In the past, when developing nuclear power during the Cold War, "big men" at that time prioritized the choice of uranium instead of thorium, because uranium also had the potential to become a nuclear warfare weapon. paintings. However, at the present time, when the fear of weaponizing nuclear energy is rising, as well as the dangers that nuclear reactors can cause to humans, thorium has begun to show. clearly superior to uranium.

"This is a very promising technology in large-scale energy production. We want to start from earlier than when this technology becomes popular," - Sander de Groot, currently studying Research at NRG energy company said.

The biggest advantage of thorium compared to uranium is that it does not produce heavy isotopes, so it does not cause much harm to the environment after a long time. Moreover, the products obtained from the production of energy from thorium would not be easy to convert into nuclear weapons, because the efficiency of plutonium production of thorium is very poor.

With such advantages, almost thorium will be the first choice in the field of nuclear energy research in the future.

However, thorium has been "abandoned" since the 1970s, so the development of atomic energy from thorium is like beginning research from white pages. So for nuclear power powers like the US or Russia, the study of thorium's production of nuclear energy is not an economically optimal choice.

India is another country that is also researching and developing nuclear plants using thorium as the main material, because the country possesses a lot of thorium.

In the Netherlands, energy company NRG has begun activating the first thorium-based nuclear power plant for testing. At this plant, fluorine salts are melted at low pressure, then dissolve the thorium salt and then irradiate the mixture to convert them into uranium isotope U-233, thereby releasing energy.

There are still many other experiments that need to be done to control the safety of the reactor, as well as to handle the waste generated from this process in the most efficient way. But until then, it is certain that research and development of nuclear energy will still be controversial around the world.

Hopefully with thorium, we will have another option for clean and safe energy in the future, in addition to other renewable energy sources.