A study of functions of “The Bank (Thorium Energy Bank)”

KAMEI Takashi

Research Institute for Applied Sciences, 49, Tanaka-Oi-cho, Sakyo-ku, Kyoto, 606-8202, Japan (hae00675@nifty.com)

Abstract: Several approaches are required in parallel for constructing a sustainable society. One of them is to fight against global warming. Nuclear power has been used for peaceful purpose because nuclear power produces electricity without emitting CO2. Though nuclear power plant has a possibility of severe accident such as the Fukushima Dai-ichi accident, its advantage is still valuable for the world. Thorium plays an important role for solving global warming. Fertile thorium can be used as nuclear fuel by support of fissionable plutonium-239 from spent uranium fuel. Plutonium-239 obtained from uranium fuel enables implementing 392 GWe of thorium nuclear power. Thorium itself is now obtained as a by-product of rare-earth mining, which is used for high-tech products including photovoltaic cell, wind-mill, and electric vehicle. However, thorium is not taken care of environmental hazard adequately so far. Both to take care of environment and to support implementation of high-tech product, an international framework of storage of thorium will be presented.
Keyword: thorium; rare-earth; by-product; storage