this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
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First hydrogen locomotive started working in Poland.

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[โ€“] heird@lemmy.ml 0 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Thorium Molten Salt reactor can't be used for weapons because it's no fissable so it can't have a chain reaction that creates explosions

https://ulstein.com/news/ulstein-thor-zero-emission-concept

[โ€“] roguetrick@kbin.social 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, I wouldn't consider the thorium fuel cycle as part of our current tech. India's going to be the first to start thorium breeding at scale which they haven't gotten close to doing to date. That said, Thorium fuel absolutely can produce nuclear weapons in a breeder reactor design, it's just more difficult because you have to reprocess the fuel for U233 which is what Thorium is bred into.

There are lower enrichment targets you could theoretically use for a small uranium reactor depending on your moderator. It's just easier to use highly enriched uranium, or maybe some sort of MOX fuel.