Chapter 18
Overview of European Experience
with Thorium Fuels
Didier Haas, M. Hugon, and M. Verwerft
Abstract Since the early 1970s, studies and experimental projects have been
undertaken in Europe to examine the potential of thorium-based fuels in a variety
of reactor types. The first trials were mainly devoted to the use of thorium in hightemperature reactors. These projects can be seen as scientific successes but were not
pursued on a commercial basis because of the priority given in Europe to the
development of light water reactors. Later on, thorium oxide was considered as a
potential matrix for burning plutonium (possibly also minor actinides), and several
core design studies, as well as experiments, were undertaken. The most recent such
concern the BR2 and HFR Material Test Reactor (MTR) irradiations in Belgium
and in the Netherlands, respectively, as well as the KWO PWR in Obrigheim in
Germany, in which thorium-plutonium oxide fuel (Th-MOX) was successfully
irradiated up to 38 GWd/tHM. The results of these experiments have shown that
Th-MOX behaves in a comparable way as conventional uranium-plutonium oxide
fuel (U-MOX). More work is still needed before Th-MOX will reach sufficient
maturity to implement it on a large scale in power reactors, but all currently
available results indicate that licensing Th-MOX for LWRs should be feasible.
Finally, European research projects are still devoted to the study of thorium salts in
molten salt reactors, a design that incorporates on-line reprocessing and needs no
specific thorium fabrication, adding therefore the benefits of thorium without its
main challenges.
Keywords Fuel • HTR • LWR • MSR • Plutonium • Thorium
International Symposium on Nuclear Back-end Issues and the Role of Nuclear Transmutation
Technology after the accident of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations
D. Haas (*)
Consultant, 101 rue de la Station, 1457 Walhain, Belgium
e-mail: Didier.haas@hotmail.be
M. Hugon
European Commission, Brussels, 1049 Brussels, Belgium
M. Verwerft
SCK•CEN, Boeretang 200 B-2400 Mol, Belgium
© The Author(s) 2015
K. Nakajima (ed.), Nuclear Back-end and Transmutation Technology for Waste
Disposal, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55111-9_18
197
Overview of European Experience
with Thorium Fuels
Didier Haas, M. Hugon, and M. Verwerft
Abstract Since the early 1970s, studies and experimental projects have been
undertaken in Europe to examine the potential of thorium-based fuels in a variety
of reactor types. The first trials were mainly devoted to the use of thorium in hightemperature reactors. These projects can be seen as scientific successes but were not
pursued on a commercial basis because of the priority given in Europe to the
development of light water reactors. Later on, thorium oxide was considered as a
potential matrix for burning plutonium (possibly also minor actinides), and several
core design studies, as well as experiments, were undertaken. The most recent such
concern the BR2 and HFR Material Test Reactor (MTR) irradiations in Belgium
and in the Netherlands, respectively, as well as the KWO PWR in Obrigheim in
Germany, in which thorium-plutonium oxide fuel (Th-MOX) was successfully
irradiated up to 38 GWd/tHM. The results of these experiments have shown that
Th-MOX behaves in a comparable way as conventional uranium-plutonium oxide
fuel (U-MOX). More work is still needed before Th-MOX will reach sufficient
maturity to implement it on a large scale in power reactors, but all currently
available results indicate that licensing Th-MOX for LWRs should be feasible.
Finally, European research projects are still devoted to the study of thorium salts in
molten salt reactors, a design that incorporates on-line reprocessing and needs no
specific thorium fabrication, adding therefore the benefits of thorium without its
main challenges.
Keywords Fuel • HTR • LWR • MSR • Plutonium • Thorium
International Symposium on Nuclear Back-end Issues and the Role of Nuclear Transmutation
Technology after the accident of TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Stations
D. Haas (*)
Consultant, 101 rue de la Station, 1457 Walhain, Belgium
e-mail: Didier.haas@hotmail.be
M. Hugon
European Commission, Brussels, 1049 Brussels, Belgium
M. Verwerft
SCK•CEN, Boeretang 200 B-2400 Mol, Belgium
© The Author(s) 2015
K. Nakajima (ed.), Nuclear Back-end and Transmutation Technology for Waste
Disposal, DOI 10.1007/978-4-431-55111-9_18
197