Hey Can the defence sector use Thoruim instead of Uranium for weapon purpose? AND IF India goes for Thorium nuke explosion, I hope the HYDE ACT would not be a show stopper as its applicable to uranium processed ang given by them?
Any clarification on this by the any knowledgeable person!
RE:Nuclear economics
by RAJAT GUPTA on May 31, 2007 01:15 PM Permalink
Hi, As described in article thorium can also produce energy so it can also be use for making nukes but the catch is that it requires Uranium byproduct to start the fission reaction. so again the problem is same we need to reprocess the imported uranium. And if thorium is used in making nukes INDIA will require to import huge quantities of Uranium for energy sector which will increase the import bills and hence the basic point of exploiting thorium reserves for cheap electricity gets negated. considering only all these aspects INDIA wants to import small amounts of uranium to use it feeding the thorium breeder reactors and produce clean electricity at very low cost. while at the same time using its limited uranium reserves to produce sufficient number of nukes to maintain the minimum deterrent for its hostile neighborhood. While the concern of USA is that why should we give our uranium to INDIA for making electricity while INDIA will use its own Uranium to make nukes. Hope this answers ur question. :)
RE:Nuclear economics
by top Prakash on May 31, 2007 12:29 PM Permalink
No. Thorium can't be used for explosion. Its byproduct of Uranium may be used. Energy processing through Thorium needs a fission material (U238) to create energy and the same U238 is core for explosion. That's why US don't want us to use processed by-product of Uranium.
