Thorium - Periodic Table of Videos

Thorium, element 90 on the periodic table.
Extra footage: • Thorium (extra footage)
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Featuring Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff.
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From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham: bit.ly/NottChem
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran: www.bradyharan.com/
Brady's Blog: www.bradyharanblog.com
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[@NightWind099]

he asking for that haircut in the barbershop "what kind of cut do you want" "science"

[@doncarlo5]

nope ! he goes like: back to the future - doc hair cut please !

[@adizmal]

Poliakof in the barbershop... "Lemme get dat Einstein" Barber... "Say no more fam"

[@Tuxedo2680]

Same haircut as the Sesame Street character Beaker.

[@rob3125]

His answer to the barber is i want mushroom cloud style 😃

[@DarkShroom]

​@@rob3125 the barbar is like "well i dunno about that doc, but i remember doing a bicarbonate of soda experiment when i was younger"

[@JeremiahMcCoy]

My grandfather worked with Thorium while working on some Molten Salt Reactor designs during his stint at ORNL. He was quite keen on it as an alternative fuel source.

[@becurieus1]

+Jeremiah McCoy Wait, is your Grandpa H. E. McCoy?!?!

[@timhyatt9185]

+Jeremiah McCoy we REALLY need to revisit the work done at Oak Ridge...they had an answer we need today, but was bypassed due to largely political issues....

[@becurieus1]

Tim Hyatt Actually, financial and political IMO. In fact, the financial might have been the bigger driver of the political issues. We will have to rely on the private sector going forward I think, and we have over a billion dollars in new, advanced reactors in today's world, so things moving along now!

[@timhyatt9185]

+BeCurieus agreed, the financial angle was a huge factor and likely the PRIMARY reason Nixon advocated the California development as it put money into his state... Adm Rickover pushed for the Light-water design (the type we use now) as he wanted them for his submarine fleet (and later the naval fleet)...between the two, it forced Oak Ridge's LFTR research to be shut down....

[@seigeengine]

My limited knowledge of molten salt reactors is that they're fairly dangerous. Thoughts?

[@wo262]

"You are not worthium" - Thorium

[@GaunabNeunundneunzig]

+Wo!262 You made my day! :D

[@jasonpatowsky6929]

+Wo!262 Guess we need more elevators then ;--;

[@Ashtree81]

+Wo!262 I dont get it

[@zerocalvin]

+Ashtree81 if you arent joking... google marvel's thor...

[@Kal-Grayskull]

There are no strings on me

[@pco1984]

Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff is my hero! I want a bobblehead of him on my desk!

[@kerberossi]

it's rather cheeky naming off all your titles

[@BozHogan]

Pieter Ouborg - Bobblehead? I'd rather a Chia Pet. Lol. Gotta love him tho.

[@Amateur0Visionary]

He is a bobblehead.

[@jdavis7993]

@Sasuke Uchiha just ProfesSir 🙃

[@monika.alt197]

Dr. Professor Sir*

[@abdelhamidcherragui]

The things the professor carries in his pockets are just fascinating!

[@jbdragonlance]

I love how he teaches us. I really wish he was a high school teacher. Maybe I wouldn't have failed Chem. The prof is amazing! Best Teacher in the world award!

[@leburnham5864]

Here in the US, Thorium was widely used in vacuum valves in the early days of radio. They used a Thoriated Tungsten filament. Also my Alladin kerosene lamps and my Coleman white gas lamps both use Thoriated mantles in them.Please keep up this series. I find it quite informative.

[@gordonmcdowell]

Enjoy this very much. At 6:50 you mention Thorium Oxide and the challenge of fabricating solid fuel. I'd love for your viewers to know that many thorium advocates (myself being one) feel that only in Molten Salt Reactors can thorium be efficiently consumed as a nuclear fuel. That is a solution where fabricating nuclear fuel is not a challenge, and in fact the CHEMICAL properties of thorium provide distinct advantages over breeding U/Pu. So in solid fuel: Th=harder... in molten salts: Th=easier.

[@ThoriumRemix]

+gordonmcdowell Explain: The Protactinium-233 lasts for a month before decaying into U-233, liquid chemistry (via Molten Salts) is a great way to get Pa-233 out-of-way of neutrons while it decays. Same with fission-product Xenon... bubble the Xenon gas out of salt and move it out of way of neutrons until it decays. So less undesirable stuff being produced in reactor, and less wasted neutrons. Doable with Molten Salt. Impossible with solid fuel.

[@EricMeyer9]

Yeah, it doesn't seem like this fellow has heard of the molten salt reactor (LFTR)! Important thing to know about for a video about Thorium.

[@achalhp]

+gordonmcdowell Periodic Videos should also consider making videos about Molten Salts. The fluid fuel can be kept inside the reactor much longer than solid fuels, which gets damaged as a result of nuclear reactions. So MSR's are much more efficient than any solid fueled reactors.

[@DDBwest]

+gordonmcdowell any timeline for the 2016 video? very excited for that

[@EricMeyer9]

+gordonmcdowell thanks for the link! Though academic reports are a little harder to digest than your docs!

[@seigeengine]

It is very pleasnt to hear about thorium from a level-headed perspective. Few things turn me off more than fanaticism.

[@seigeengine]

Chelsea Ducat Huh?

[@chelseaducat1598]

My kid got in my phone

[@lukassberg7850]

+seigeengine pff, laughable

[@seigeengine]

***** Except it isn't, and you come across like the evangelical preachy scumbags that I slam my front door at.

[@General12th]

Thorium really *isn't* a cure-all.

[@Fishhookjack]

I had no idea thorium was so difficult to obtain. I use it on a daily basis in TIG welding (tungsten inert gas). I use 2% thoriated electrodes most often and no we don't put them in our pockets.

[@LilyBlossom1337]

Thanks to videos like these, I can honestly say I've garnered more knowledge outside of school than in. Thanks so, so much for putting the time, effort, and cost into making these videos!

[@ChrisWilson999]

A working megawatt range Thorium reactor ran in the US at ORNL for more than a year around 1969. I don't think its cost was higher than a Uranium reactor though I'm no expert. Awesome video.

[@utah133]

Same year that I graduated high school. We were more scientifically advenuresome in those days...

[@advanceringnewholder]

i heard the refining process of uranium is quite costly. i maybe wrong

[@somethingsnowing]

Advancering Newholder yes it is quite expensive and energy intensive to refine uranium but the primary reason they abandoned the molten salt thorium reactor was the fact that uranium reactors and refinement produces plutonium for weapons

[@stroke_of_luck]

Thank you for a very solid description of the problems with it.

[@DavidWaeldervideo]

Love this channel, thank you.

[@theyesman91]

Hey, love your channel man! crazy seeing the ways people I follow also follow each other's work :D

[@Brascofarian]

+Aidan Connolly the way KZbin used to work you mean?

[@doutcast1002]

@@theyesman91 ppp

[@vitorpmemm]

The Professor deserves absolute respect. A source of unique and deep knowledge for everyone with internet. My sadness is that even today, some people cannot view his videos. He is the best Professor I had in life, without a single test......just because he don´t hesitate on spreading all he know in a special and "addicting" way, without fear of a test and scores. all elements are amazing but thorium is my favourite

[@SnowBlind853]

Want to know how to start a fight on a periodic video? Aluminum.

[@mattomanx77]

+SnowBlind853 Aluminum is the American spelling and Aluminium is the British spelling, Spell it based on where you live *bomb has been defused*

[@SnowBlind853]

Solarius The Blaziken I am afraid your argument is only valid for places with common sense and human decency. This is the internet.

[@mattomanx77]

SnowBlind853 Internet spelling: Alumnum

[@SnowBlind853]

Solarius The Blaziken You (Offensive term for homosexual) it's spelled anuminiumiumalum where I am from and so that is the only possible way to spell it and all other ways are wrong. How do I know? Because I have an insanely narrow view of the world and get angry at anything even slightly outside of that perception, and because I have an opinion that makes me right.

[@mattomanx77]

[@Cosimate]

I suggest showing how aluminium oxide is made. Edited for common spelling mistake.

[@Minecraftster148790]

Aluminium

[@chaos_omega]

Aluminum is an accepted spelling in the United States and Canada.

[@CeresIsAwesome]

+Chaos Omega It was discovered in Denmark, however, and because of that the English translation from Danish passed through Britain before it came to the US & Canada. That translation happens to be Aluminium, which is considered the "correct" spelling of the word, and its foundation word. Aluminum is just a variant. Plus, it sort of sounds cooler as Aluminium. :D

[@chaos_omega]

I understand that... This variant is accepted as "correct" in the US & Canada. And I'm from Canada, so... yeah.

[@SpitefulAZ]

+James Nunn Aluminium is prefered by IUPAC, but they also prefer Sulfur over Sulphur, so we are even.

[@richardzippler3330]

I want to thank you for your show. I'm an engineer not a chemist. So chemistry is kind of boring , for me. But you kids get so excited. you take one clear liquid and you put it with another clear liquid and you get a clear liquid ,yeah ! you make chemistry seem fun and interesting, thanks. Keep it up ,we love you out here.

[@UhandisiAfrika]

Of the whole series, Thorium has been my best.

[@scottssurfshop]

In the past, Thorium Oxides were used to dope optical glass lenses. Love the channel!

[@wild_fire6636]

1st of all congratulations on getting your hands on Thorium. 2nd Great job on getting so much information and history on Thorium with there not being to much in the world. And 3rd: LOVE YOUR VIDEOS!!!!!

[@codediporpal]

Fabulous video. So dense with key information.

[@leptonsoup337]

How about a video on thorium-based reactors? There is something very interesting stuff out there that people should be aware of!

[@danidzs]

Love this channel so much!

[@matthewday7565]

I seem to recall that Thorium was also used in valves/tubes, the thoriated tungsten cathode, and in welding rods

[@leion800]

They are still used tin TIG welding electrodes.

[@smithno41]

Thoriated Tungsten is still used for filaments in transmitting tubes/valves

[@KarbineKyle]

I have thorium samples and chemicals. It's an interesting element! Unfortunately, it's hard to find chemicals and metal samples now. You can find minerals that contain thorium, like thorianite, thorite, monazite, zircon, and ekanite. It's great as a check source and also for gamma spectroscopy. TIG welding electrodes, certain vacuum tubes, and some lantern mantles contain some ThO2.

[@stephenbardzilowski6618]

Great presentation! Concise! Please follow up with another video on Thorium🙏🏽

[@GrayShark09]

Great! I love how this subject is flourishing!

[@SaceedAbul]

He looks like science.

[@DanielDogeanu]

+SaceedAbul He is science! Professor Sir Martyn Poliakoff is a professor of chemistry at the University of Nottingham.

[@loganbailey5814]

+Daniel Dogeanu he's a knight

[@DanielDogeanu]

Logan Bailey You could say that...

[@aaaaZa100]

Science Knight!

[@RusticKey]

+Victor Frankenstein Knight of Science?

[@Spartan536]

FINALLY!!!! THANK YOU PROFESSOR!!!! I would love to see you in a talk with Kirk Sorensen, that guy is a genius in his own right ( he should be, he was an astrophysicist for NASA before he went back to get his PhD in Nuclear Physics). Using FLiBe salts in a reactor instead of light or heavy water you do not need to use 60-70x times normal pressure to generate power through steam, and its incredibly more stable than current and even new proposed H2O/2H2O reactors. Not to mention that you can use up around 95% of Thorium fuel while depleting Plutonium at the same time where as with U238 Oxide in a light water reactor you generally use up .5% of the fissile material. This cuts down on Nuclear byproduct waste by itself alone, not to mention that per KG of 232 Thorium vs 238 Uranium, Thorium is 1000X more energy dense. Given as you stated there are issues to overcome, however if Thorium FLiBe technology were to be given the same funding and attention that Uranium 238 reactors have been given we could easily get LFTR (Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors) within the next 5 years thanks to all the kept research from the scientists at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory who ran a small scale molten salt reactor powered by Thorium back in the early 1960's- early 1980's. SPREAD THE WORD, SUPPORT LFTR's!

[@HPPavillionUser]

Just want to congratulate you on these interesting and educational videos! Keep them coming please!

[@freshdonuts7361]

Very intresting stuff Sir Martyn Poliakoff, you always keep me coming back for more

[@nefariumxxx]

You can still find thoriated lantern mantles for sale. Coleman brand stopped using it though. And yes, they do make a geiger counter go crazy. Also TIG welding rods are 2% thoriated tungsten. Very mild in activity compared to the mantles though. Got some geiger counter testing vids on my channel.

[@corylannon8546]

+Geiger Mouse They don't really use/produce those anymore. Maybe in old school shops there could be some thoriated tungsten laying around... use a mask when grinding your electrode people!

[@cyrusebrahimi9436]

+Cory Lannon 2% Thoriated is still the most widely used TIG electrode. You can buy it today from multiple big name distributors. I think one came with my new tig welder lol.

[@corylannon8546]

Geiger Mouse oh wow, I was misinformed, I was under the impression that the US wasn't selling them any more.

[@nefariumxxx]

I have a lot of fun going to antique shops with my geiger counter. It's amazing how much stuff is out there and people are mostly clueless about it. I am careful not to be rude about it or scare off customers. :)

[@NorfKhazad]

+Geiger Mouse The problem with thoriated tungsten is that the dust is a carcinogen. Never grind a thoriated tig tungsten without proper ventilation.

[@unknowncuyler5449]

even an old timer like martyn looks fresh with a new hair cut!

[@George-Edwards]

I still have a few of the old Coleman lantern mantles around. They sure send a Geiger counter's reading up pretty high. Thank you for all the interesting videos on the elements that make up our world and universe.

[@TeeJayChapmion]

It'd be great if there was a follow-up video explaining how radioactive waste is dealt with in principle vs in practice!! :)

[@gaminawulfsdottir3253]

"It used to be used..." You have to love English.

[@ryPish]

The problem with Thorium is that you can't make bombs out of it. Therefore the military has zero interest in it, and it will never be a thing. ...unless some insanely rich and smart person decides to develop Thorium reactors privately. Let's hope those new Tesla car sell really well.

[@matsv201]

+Ry P Actually you kind of can.. they tried that... it kind of worked... but it was horribly expensive and they got very low yeld. I would not bet tesla on doing that. They are to invested in solar/wind

[@ASilentS]

+matsv201 They got low yield because they were small scale test reactors. derp.

[@matsv201]

SilentS No was talking about bombs.

[@MrCordycep]

+Ry P The Chinese are going crazy over thorium so there's that at least.

[@pramitbanerjee]

+Ry P bruce wayne might ,to defeat superman

[@colefrick]

I remember watching when the playlist for all the elements was only around 40-50 videos or so, I stopped watching for some reason, so now I’m back and catching up. I did forget how interesting the professor and the editors / creators explain everything and it makes it easier to learn.

[@maluco132]

he is so down to earth and see the big picture while speaking of the details o a single element, it's almost like he is telling a story, not lectturing.

[@islamicstate5080]

Early vacuum tubes also used thoriated tungsten filaments.

[@OnlyTheEd]

+Islamic State Over in the "English area", they call vacuum tubes "valves"........for some reason.

[@tracylemme1375]

Thoriated tungsten is used for some TIG welding electrodes.

[@X0verXDriveX]

Thorium is used for TIG welding.

[@crispincain5373]

Thanks for going the extra mile in presenting this video. We in California salute you!

[@johnfarmer3506]

3:37 Unless you have a military type nuclear reactor, one dedicated to producing PU239, you will have to do a lot of highly technical level separation after the a commercial fuel rod is spent to get enough pu239 to do anything.

[@dale116dot7]

Also unless you swap fuel rods out every month or so, Pu240 becomes problematic, weapons tend to fizzle when there’s more than a small amount of it. Also U233 has been used in at least one test weapon, Teapot MET. It didn’t fizzle but it did underperform, it yielded around 70% of target.

[@loganbailey5814]

can't wait for LFTRs

[@jmitterii2]

+Logan Bailey China started a 10 year develop and implement a LFTR plant in 2014, so 2024 or sooner one maybe developed.

[@imperatorodaenathus9329]

+jmitterii2 If China started, that means the US started. It's not like China makes its own nuclear technology. After all, they've been stealing US nuclear technology for 25 years.

[@wakewind4129]

Jadearistocrat Do you know how much China has spent on lftr?

[@CapytanCrimp]

Romeball they already did we had a complete working prototype in the 1970s

[@r3d0c]

Won't happen; not practical compared to conventional ones, you'd be better off researching fusion and see how close we are to attaining net gain reactors

[@TheCommentAcc]

Omg, the music they played during the demonstration graphics reminded me alot of some horror.exe videos, I was constantly expecting a jumpscare D:

[@yamanmustafa7574]

*A lot

[@Moonflower1313]

Thank you for making this video. Very interesting. I hope this topic is explored further.

[@Proxtor]

I have a bunch of 1.5% and 2% thoriated Tungsten electrodes for TIG welding. Thorium helps with making the Tungsten stand up to the high temperature and high amps when welding steel in certain applications.

[@badATchaos]

There was a movement during the Cold War in the United States to begin development of Thorium reactors but Nixon didn't want to fund them because there wasn't the possibility to create weapons from the byproduct.

[@nblax41]

+bad@chaos It's funny because it's extremely difficult to get bomb material out of a reactor once everything is said and done. It's a whole other process to get weapon-grade fission material.

[@Z80Fan]

+bad@chaos It's not that: Nixon was from California, and a laboratory in California (I don't remember the name) was working on the Fast Breeder Reactor, while Oak Ridge was working on the "thorium" reactor. So Nixon decided to cut funds to Oak Ridge and push the FBR in California. When Alvin Weinberg (the inventor of the light water reactor and the molten salt reactor) protested this, he got fired and all research at Oak Ridge was halted.

[@MrWombatty]

Apparently now there's a lot of interest in developing & patenting Thorium-reactors by the Chinese with a view to extorting from the rest of the globe high prices for the technology!

[@k_tess]

@@MrWombatty The U.S. would probably do to China what China has been doing to everyone for years. Not give a damn who owns the intellectual rights and build the technology anyways.

[@txbrz6153]

This man looks like Science.

[@francisbarnett]

As always very clearly explained, thanks.

[@TCBYEAHCUZ]

So happy you guys actually listened!

[@adobe825]

This channel doesn't post often so I guess you could say he periodically posts...

[@Argimak]

Produce all electricity with Thorium, make all transport electric, figure out nuclear fusion between now and when Thorium runs out. If only it was that easy to fix the world!

[@soylentgreenb]

+Fel That's the thing. Thorium wouldn't run out; at least not while the Earth is still habitable. Your average garden variety rock is much more energy dense than coal. It's hard even to imagine running out of uranium. The stuff they want to bury at Yucca mountain is fuel that's only very slightly used; but in the united states you are not allowed to separate the fission products and keep using the actinides in a fast reactor until they are truly spent and all turned into fission products.

[@dieselscience]

+Fel 'when thorium runs out' is many thousands of years form now.

[@poitsplace]

+Fel The ore alone would last for thousands of years. And at some point we'd end up taking it from the oceans...where it's constantly replaced by erosion. The more important point for people to understand today is this. Wind/solar actually take 5X-10X as much materials, labor, and maintenance as the same amount of power generated through nuclear. And due to the wildly erratic nature of renewables, the amount of storage necessary to buffer them is ridiculously large...weeks worth (for the US that's hundreds of terawatt hours) while the amount of storage necessary to give nuclear the surge capability it needs, is about 25% of daily output (about 1-2% that of renewables). If someone was trying to produce energy without significant CO2 emissions...nuclear is just the only game in town. Side note: Overall energy consumption is in the neighborhood of 3X the energy used in electricity production.

[@johnsanvictores6639]

+Fel Unfortunately, I think energy is just one of many of our problems.

[@Frahamen]

+Fel But we already have a nuclear fusion reactor we can easily use for the next ten trillion years. Why would we invest in new reactors then?

[@atrule]

The LFTR reactor is the way to go. I really like listening to Kirk Sorensen of Flibe Energy talking about the molten salt reactor, using Thorium.

[@MoreAboutStuff]

Yes! So glad you guys posted this! Thorium will take us into the future!

[@Pillowcase]

This is fantastic, thanks for making this video! Its very exciting to hear more be said about the potential of Thorium based power.

[@reptar74]

if thorium is so much more abundant in the world compared to uranium then why is it so hard to get a hold of like the professor said?

[@totoritko]

+Zack Because it's extremely highly regulated. It's not hard to mine, but as soon as you apply for a mining permit and you're expected to be hitting thorium-containing minerals (e.g. Monazite), expect very serious and regular visits from all kinds of regulators. That's why there are very few mines operating in such environments.

[@dairix1]

+Zack The professor said it - that it must be heated up to high temperatures (cost of production goes up) and it is rarely used. The second point is from economical standpoint, as Uranium/Plutonium technology is much more advanced and therefore much cheaper.

[@liquidminds]

+DirtYone I wouldn't say uranium/plutonium is cheaper. I'd say you have a much more profitable market. No one buys thorium, but many countries want to buy uranium/plutonium. Why go through the trouble of inspections and regulations, for a product no one wants to buy in larger quantities?

[@EgadsNo]

+Zack Actually in the US a remarkable amount of thorium is excavated from the ground by mining industries. None of it can be sold though due to its radioactive nature- it has to sit in piles per regulation, so it is treated as waste. It is really quite ludicrous.

[@TasTheWatcher]

To go with the other reasons, as the Prof. said, you can't really make bombs with it, so governments aren't as interested in using it.

[@scottmantooth8785]

these videos are always awesome...

[@Gumbocinno]

I loved the visual descriptive parts of this video.

[@AustralianLeprechaun]

Go thorium Go thorium!!! Thorium to the rescue!!!

[@dredrotten]

Checkout Molten Salt Thorium Reactor.

[@watchthe1369]

+Red .Rotten LFTR to Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor...also works along with Thorium Alliance channel.

[@ren7a8ero]

Great class, teacher!

[@TheHansoost]

Thanks. That was very interesting and informative; one might even say "elementary. " I often wondered about thorium. These videos are really well done.

[@demonetizeddemonetisedinmy1890]

FINALLY! Joke time: Thorium had Barium Lokium.

[@josephmarsh5031]

if you compare the cost of building and researching a thorium reactor to the cost of building and researching the tokamak in France, its a no brainier. Thorium wins. To be clear, I'm not saying we saying we shouldn't build ITER, I'm just saying that if we can build a tokamak, we should easily be able to build a working thorium reactor.

[@Addis2123]

We did, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment.

[@Advection357]

China is building a dozen large scale thorium reactor plants (LFTR) as we speak... Better start now

[@Advection357]

Joseph Marsh Yeah maybe later we can buy cheap thorium reactors from China hehe

[@Addis2123]

Just what we need to do. Spend more money we don't have.

[@Addis2123]

Stick to oil till the end

[@irishtino1595]

Excellent piece !

[@JOOLZNED]

Excellent video, thank you for updating it. In the 1970's to 1980's Winfrith were making progress on the dragon reactor using a mix of uranium and thorium, technology we have now lost

[@Chizbolt]

It's a shame we're taking so long to develop Liquid Flouride Thorium Reactors. Too long even.

[@bat_bro1lewis491]

Chizbolt They already have, they devoloped one in the 60s in America so it does work, the only reason we don't use it is because of how expensive building a power plant is these days

[@kf8575]

@@bat_bro1lewis491 the reason they are not used, is because they dont produce plutonium as a biproduct. Therefore they went down the BWR route, to produce plutonium for their nuclear armament efforts

[@jamesw6371]

Can't get permits and licensing to build and operate one on the grounds that our regulations and approval process is backwards and antiquated.

[@1320crusier]

LFTR! Build molten salt reactors and build them now!

[@Stijn081]

Incredibly interesting video!

[@Danzo285]

Smart man. Would love a follow up

[@WojciechP915]

Is the audio messed up? I hear this annoying noise whenever the animation comes up.

[@dustinwiebold8647]

+Bill T That is the radiation coming through your screen.

[@logicplague2077]

We could really use those thorium reactors about now.

[@evelynesimon5758]

thank you so much for a brilliant channel

[@southforkjim8980]

There was a successful Th fueled prototype reactor in Delta, Pennsylvania called Peach Bottom Unit 1. It shutdown in 1974. It was a graphite moderated reactor with most of the fuel encapsulated in BISO particles. There were even test elements with first generation TRISO encapsulation. Advanced reactor technologies being proposed today include TRISO tech for accident tolerance.

[@wolfumz]

Why is Thorium so hard to obtain? My understanding is that it's a very common element in the earth's crust...

[@smh9902]

+wolfumz Because government red tape. Thats the only reason. Its actually a trash product of rare Earth mining and is literally piling up in man made mountains composed almost entirely of waste thorium.

[@Godlessfuture]

+Joe Schmoe To add to Joe Schmoe, the red tape mainly comes from toxicity concerns, primarily because of it's byproducts Radium and an Radon. Thorium my be weakly radiactive, but it's byproducts aren't and large amounts of Thorium over time can accumulate it's by products comparable quickly.

[@BeCurieUs]

+Godlessfuture And to add, it has nearly no economic value. The value of extracting it and trying to sell it is basically non-existent, beyond research or small qualities in some TIG welders. It also isn't well suited for primary extraction, meaning it is USUALLY a by product of some other process, this is because thorium doesn't form very rich deposits itself. As such, being that there is no primary market, and also it is a byproduct and mixed in an acid slurry means it won't be flowing into the economy.

[@squirlmy]

@@BeCurieUs this is right, but you're underestimating the issue. One rare earth mine can produce 5,000 tons of thorium a year as waste. 5000 TONS. Your argument about "very rich deposits by itself" is somewhat backwards, because there ARE rich deposits, they just come along with rare earth minerals, and those are the basis for mining. Not alone, for sure but rich nonetheless.

[@BeCurieUs]

@@squirlmy I wasn't referring to theoretical extraction venues, I was talking about how it is not generally processed as a primary ore because no one wants to buy it. Also, it's sideproduct nature from rare earth's also speaks to this as it is MUCH easier to dispose of cost wise than reprocess it again for thorium to sell on a market that doesn't need it.

[@jimlovesgina]

Kirk Sorenson has been pushing Thorium reactors for years. He has many videos up. Check him out!

[@theindian888]

amazing person very diligent n educational personality

[@atomowsky]

I've been waiting for this video so long!!!!!!!!

[@mmmhorsesteaks]

Personally, I think the thorium cycle is the way forward. Combined with some sort of subcritical reactor design (think MYRRHA) that would also be capable of transmutation to get rid of long-living isotopes, reducing the need for long-term storage. Supplemented by renewables, and perhaps fusion in 40-50 years ;-)

[@alejandronq645]

A video colab with Derek Muller (Veritassium) would be awesome

[@ASilentS]

+Alejandro Apellido Derek would just waste all his time philosophising instead of talking about actual science.

[@alejandronq645]

+SilentS Maybe... have you watched his Uranium documentary? It's great

[@Trespasser249]

i would love to see the professor do a video on the thorium reactor that was active at the oakridge national lab in the 1960's

[@PacoOtis]

Thanks for the video! Well done! A great thanks for NOT having background music!

[@vaibhavgupta20]

LFTR comments incoming.

[@TheNerd484]

+Vaibhav Gupta same thought here.

[@TheNerd484]

Alejandro Apellido liquid fluoride thorium reactor

[@vihai]

+Vaibhav Gupta Yeah! LFTR FTW!

[@alejandronq645]

+vihai ??

[@kmac499]

+Vaibhav Gupta If the Internet is to be believed :-) LFTR's should be a no brainer. They fail to safety by the leaks 'freezing' from molten salt to solid. Low pressure operation so no need for massively strong containment vessels, corrosion resistance yes. Plus any country that pioneers it can offer nuclear know how without the weapons proliferation stigma. (Compared to ITER and other fusion projects it seems a much better bet for guaranteeing baseload power.)

[@foreverofthestars4718]

You didn't mention the fact that thorium power plants are FAR safer than uranium plants.

[@BeCurieUs]

+ForeverOfTheStars Safety is more about culture and design. There are many passively safe uranium designs out there, some very new ones as well that use molten salts with no thorium to be seen.

[@leerman22]

No, the molten salt reactor thorium happens to be proposed for is what's safe. Thorium in a light water reactor is just as safe as a LWR running on uranium.

[@jessedaly7847]

The Eh Team correct, msrs are inherently far safer than pressurized water reactors or even liquid metal designs. Basically solid fuel and pressurized water are unstable and vastly inferior to liquid fuels and atmospheric pressure reactor design. Doesn’t matter if they are burning thorium, uranium, or plutonium.

[@catalaanfcb6531]

Those video's are so learnfull thanks!

[@rdoetjes]

You can post radioactive materials! I gotten test samples of up to 1 uC send in the mail. And Thorium is mainly an Alpha emitter (some betas are released when atom becomes a Radium) but the majority of the radiation is shielded in this massive perspex block so even if the package went through an X-Ray scanner they would only measure minute amount of gammas not enough to sound the inspection alarm.

[@jamiehughes5573]

mjolnirium

[@mrinalthakur3459]

lokium

[@TheZenytram]

Odinium

[@mrinalthakur3459]

Zenytram Searom Mrinalium

[@owenchuarbx]

Hemsworthium

[@stantorren4400]

Thanoium

[@hermionemoul3714]

So Oxygen and Magnesium walked into a bar and I was like OMG!

[@greenanubis]

+LovelyHermycat Hermione lol, ok, successful pun is successful.

[@TCBYEAHCUZ]

+LovelyHermycat Hermione snaaawwwwwwwww

[@HyperSpify]

+LovelyHermycat Hermione You mean OMg.

[@ShyanTheLegend]

its MgO magnesium oxide

[@1980subrosa]

Great video as usual! Greetings from Argentina!

[@EIBBOR2654]

Very interesting. I see by many of the comments that many say that there is not much use for Thorium. However, for decades it has been used in welding, specifically in the Tungsten Inert Gas (TIG) welding process. Most of the Tungsten electrodes have a percentage of Thorium mixed in, 1 to 3 percent I've seen but there may be higher percentage ones. The most common is the 2% Thoriated Tungsten electrodes. These Thoriated electrodes are still on the market, but are being phased out by Ceriated tungsten and Lanthanated tungsten over the concern of the radiation of the thorium. Some concern over the Thorium radiation arose a few years ago in the US Air Force. I was in charge of a machine/welding shop when some issues came up over that issue. Our environmental/health people came over with a geiger counter to check out how much radiation the tungsten electrodes were putting out at 2% since we only had about 12 to 15 electrodes in about 6 different diameters. The smaller ones didn't give off much radiation, but the larger ones gave off a large amount of radiation. Enough for them to have, a big health problem, especially over us grinding them. At that point we went to the Ceriated and Lanthanated tungsten electrodes. Thorium is used in many products that require high heat applications.

[@timhyatt9185]

many of the "lessons' learned in working with Uranium light-water reactors would be applicable to LFTR reactors. The primary reason we went to the Light-water reactors was largely politically based (thanks to Rickover's push to get them in submarines, and Nixon wanting development in California instead of the research at Oak Ridge working on LFTRS) Do a youtube search on LFTRs and Thorium, and check out the videos with Kirk Sorensen....he's a HUGE advocate of LFTR technology and why it's superior to Light-water reactors....

[@Venojin]

Hardest element to get a hold of? Hardly. Ungoro Crater is covered in the stuff.

[@matsv201]

+Venojin Its oxide, not pure thorium

[@moropikkuu]

"Get hold of" as in "being allowed to buy a sample". There are very strict regulations on buying pure Thorium, making it unobtainable for normal people, and even people who work with it have to go through tons of paperwork to even be allowed to transport it from the mine to where it will be processed.

[@BFjordsman]

@@moropikkuu just raise your mining skill to 260 , then it's super easy to get

[@BFjordsman]

@@matsv201is that how the arcane crystals form?

[@matsv201]

@@BFjordsman oo.. that is not a question for me.. i´m not a chemist

[@oracleofottawa]

Thorium - Best explanation on You Tube.

[@ricmul]

I would love to see a video on monatomic elements.

[@bryanwan6169]

I swear if Hammer Man is in the comments...

[@TCBYEAHCUZ]

Thorium has a half life of 14 billion years, Which is older than the accepted universe's age.. It's ridiculous, a banana is more radioactive for its radioactive potassium content and yet you don't see people putting their bananas in glass shields. XD

[@borisveselinov3426]

The radioactive potassium is in low concentration

[@SiMyt848]

great video professor!

[@MountainFisher]

I have rods of thorium in my tool box, its 2% thoriated tungsten. Use it for tig welding or tungsten inert gas welding.