Fast Reactors and Accelerator Driven Systems Knowledge Base

Conference Article: An overview of world thorium resources, incentives for further exploration and forecast for thorium requirements in the near future

Abstract

Thorium occurs in association with uranium and rare earth elements in diverse rock types. It occurs as veins of thorite, uranothorite and monazite in granites, syenites and pegmatites. Monazite also occurs in quartz-pebble conglomerates, sandstones and fluviatile and beach placers. Thorium occurs along with REE in bastnaesite, in the carbonatites. Present knowledge of the thorium resources in the world is poor because of inadequate exploration efforts arising out of insignificant demand. But, with the increased interest shown by several countries in the development of Fast Breeder Reactors using thorium, it is expected that the demand will increase considerably by the turn of the century. The total known world reserves of Th in RAR category are estimated at about 1.16 million tonnes. About 31% of this (0.36 mt) is known to be available in the beach and inland placers of India. The possibility of finding primary occurrences in the alkaline and other acidic rocks is good, in India. The other countries having sizeable reserves are Brazil, Canada, China, Norway, U.S.S.R., U.S.A., Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Turkey and Sri Lanka. Considering that the demand for thorium is likely to increase by the turn of this century, it is necessary that data collected so far, globally, is pooled and analysed to identify areas that hold good promise.

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Reference:

Proceedings of a technical committee meeting on utilization of thorium-based nuclear fuel: current status and perspectives held in Vienna, 2-4 December 1985

International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria)

IAEA-TECDOC--412, pp:8-21