[ExI] Could Thorium solve our energy problem?

[John Clark]

On Jul 10, 2010, at 7:52 AM, Brent Neal wrote:

> You will note that for U233, the basic release of energy per atom is 197.9 MeV, with an additional 9.1 MeV available from recapturing the fast neutrons. So the most energy that can be extracted per atom of uranium-233 is 207 MeV, or 3.32 e-11 J/atom.   There are 6.023e23 atoms/mol, thus we get 2e12 J/mol.  1 mol of U233 weighs 233g, roughly. This gives us 85 GJ/g or  85 TJ/kg. Thus, my original estimate was off by about 6%,

Let me quote from your calculation that I received on July 8 2010 at 8:50 PM EST:

> The relevant data are:
> 4.3 Mton world thorium reserves (source: OECD)

And that is at least 10 times too small as you have admitted.

> Energy density: 80TJ / ton thorium (estimate based on conversion to U233 via slow neutrons)

The true figure is 85TJ a KILOGRAM not a TON.
Thus you were off not by 6% but by a factor of 10,000.

 John K Clark
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