Thorium - A New Abundant Energy Source

At the Science for Life symposium launched recently, ahead of the VinFuture Prize Award Ceremony, Professor Gérard Albert Mourou who won Nobel Physics in 2018 said that he is researching thorium, an abundant resource that could help humans solve the energy problem for up to 20,000 years.

January 21, 2022. By News Bureau

At the ‘Science for Life’ symposium launched recently, ahead of the VinFuture Prize Award Ceremony, Professor Gérard Albert Mourou who won Nobel Physics in 2018 said that he is researching thorium, an abundant resource that could help humans solve the energy problem for up to 20,000 years.

The professor, who is also a member of the VinFuture Prize Council, said that Thorium was being studied to replace Uranium in nuclear power production. If successful, this will be an effective solution for the depletion of energy sources.

According to Prof. Mourou, Thorium has three advantages. The first is its abundance in nature. "Compared to other power production's inputs, if Carbon is one unit, Uranium is five, then Thorium is up to 1 million units," he said.

Second, Thorium produces much less waste than Uranium. And thirdly, the life cycle of toxic materials of Thorium is very short compared to Uranium.

"That is why it is an opportunity for us in the field of nuclear energy. This is an area that we had never explored before and we can now. The energy source can meet the needs of 10 billion people for a period of 10,00-20,000 years," Prof, Mourou said.

Study on new energy sources is now an urgent mission. This is one of the reasons ahead of the VinFuture Prize Award Ceremony, there was a session on new energy, with the participation of many leading scientists.

Attendees included Professor Richard Henry Friend (University of Cambridge, UK), Chairman of the VinFuture Prize Council, Professor Nguyễn Thục Quyên (University of California, US), Co-Chair of the VinFuture Prize Pre-Screening Committee, Professor Antonio Facchetti (Northwestern University), Professor Gérard Albert Mourou, winner of the 2018 Nobel Physics Prize, and Sir Kostya S.Novoselov, winner of the 2010 Nobel Physics Prize.

Tags:

Other Renewables

Science for Life

VinFuture Prize Award Ceremony

Professor Gérard Albert Mourou

Nobel Physics

VinFuture Prize Council

Thorium

Uranium

Nuclear power production

Energy sources

Effective solution