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Group of Companies

Group of Companies . THORIUM 2012 NUCLEAR ENERGY & THORIUM. Green Energy. NUCLEAR ENERGY DEBATE (1).

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Group of Companies

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  1. Group of Companies THORIUM 2012 NUCLEAR ENERGY & THORIUM Green Energy Dr. ReşatUzmen --- AMR Group

  2. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  3. NUCLEAR ENERGY DEBATE (1) • A few countries abandoned plans to build nuclear plants or decided to phase out their existing nuclear reactors, and some others postponed their nuclear power programme after the catastrophic accident of Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan. • Nevertheless, after the accident, especially several developing countries (e.g. Turkey, China, UAE…) are still insisting to pursue their nuclear power programme in order to meet their energy demand for coming decades. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  4. Main issues of improvement of nuclear energy in developing countries (1) • Financial aspect of the nuclear energy • The high upfront capital costs for building new nuclear power plants, their relatively long construction time and payback period worry the decision makers • Nuclear safety • Any country aspiring to possess nuclear power plants for its indigenous electricity production must adhere to the key safety-related international agreements. • Nuclear security • Non-proliferation and safeguards • It is a common belief, especially in many western and developed countries that some states would seek to acquire civilian nuclear energy as a cover for a nuclear weapons programme. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  5. Main issues of improvement of nuclear energy in developing countries (2) • Spent fuel and radioactive waste management • Durability of uraniumreserves • Actually (2009) world known recoverable resources of uranium is about 5.4 Mt of U. More than 50 % of these resources are locating in three countries: Australia, Kazakhstan and Canada. • Current usage of uranium is about 68 000tU/yr.  Thus the world's present measured resources of uranium used only in conventional reactors and in the current level of trends are enough to last for about 80 years. • Taken into consideration the present nuclear reactor technology concept and ambitious nuclear energy programme of emerging countries, it is wise to do not expect more than 100 years for the supply of uranium Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  6. Reactors able to use Thorium There are seven types of reactor into which Thoriumcan be introduced as a nuclear fuel.The first five of these have all entered into operational service at some point.The last two are still conceptual: • HeavyWaterReactors (PHWRs) • High-TemperatureGas-CooledReactors (HTRs) • Boiling (Light) WaterReactors (BWRs) • Pressurised (Light) WaterReactors (PWRs) • FastNeutronReactors (FNRs) • Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs) • Accelerator DrivenReactors (ADS) Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  7. Thorium Energy R&D Past & Present Research into the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel has been taking place for over 40 years, though with much less intensity than that for uranium or uranium-plutonium fuels. Basic development work has been conducted in Germany, India, Canada, Japan, China,Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, Russia, Brazil, the UK & the USA. Test irradiations have been conducted on a number of different thorium-based fuel forms. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  8. Noteworthy studies and experiments involving thorium fuel include: Heavy Water Reactors: Thorium-based fuels for the ‘Candu’ PHWR system have been designed and tested in Canada for more than 50 years. R&D into thorium fuel use in CANDU reactors continues to be pursued by Canadian and Chinese groups. India’s nuclear developers have designed an Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) specifically as a means for ‘burning’ thorium. Construction of the pilot AHWR may start in 2012. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  9. High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactors: Thorium fuel was used in HTRs prior to the successful demonstration reactors described above. The UK operated the 20 MWth Dragon HTR from 1964 to 1973 for 741 full power days. Germany operated the Atom Versuchs Reaktor (AVR) at Jülich for over 750 weeks between 1967 and 1988. This was a small pebble bed reactor that operated at 15 MWe, mainly with thorium-HEU fuel. Pebble bed reactor development builds on German work with the AVR and THTR and is under development in China (HTR-10, and HTR-PM). Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  10. Light Water Reactors: The feasibility of using thorium fuels in a PWR was studied in considerable detail during a collaborative project between Germany and Brazil in the 1980s The program terminated in 1988 for non-technical reasons. Thorium-plutonium oxide (Th-MOX) fuels for LWRs are being developed by Norwegian proponents with a view that these are the most readily achievable option for tapping energy from thorium. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  11. Radkowsky Thorium Reactor is a specific, heterogeneous ‘seed & blanket’ thorium fuel concept, originally designed for Russian-type LWRs (VVERs). Dsign of the seed fuel rods in the centre portion draws on experience of Russian naval reactors. The European Framework Program has supported a number of relevant research activities into thorium fuel use in LWRs. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  12. Molten Salt Reactors: The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a thorium-based demonstration MSR using U-233 as the main fissile driver. The reactor ran over 1965-69 and operated at powers up to 7.4 MWt. The lithium-beryllium-thorium salt worked at 600-700oC and ambient pressure. The R&D program demonstrated the feasibility of this system and highlighted some unique corrosion and operational issues that need to be addressed if constructing a larger pilot MSR. There is significant renewed interest in developing thorium-fuelled MSRs. Projects are (or have recently been) underway in China, Japan, Russia, France and the USA. It is notable that the MSR is one of the six ‘Generation IV’ reactor designs selected as worthy of further development . The thorium-fuelled MSR variant is sometimes referred to at the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR). Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  13. A Molten Salt Reactor would generate 4,000 times less mining waste (solid and liquids of similar character to those in uranium mining) and would generate 1,000 to 10,000 times less nuclear waste than a Light Water Reactor. • Thorium-based waste, also highly radioactive, has the distinction of being radiotoxic for a far shorter time period. The half-lives of U-233’s decay products are far shorter than the half-lives of the transuranic wastes. • Increased energy efficiency: When thorium is used as fuel in a nuclear reactor, it has the ability to give off more neutrons than it absorbs. All of the thorium is used up in a Molten Salt Reactoron the order of 300 times the output of a typical uranium fuelled Light Water Reactor. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  14. Security of supply: Reasonably assured and inferred resources recoverable at up to $80/kg Th: 2,610,000 tons • Turkey344,000tons13% of total; • India319,000tons12 % of total; • Egypt100,000tons4 % of total. It is estimated that for a molten salt breederreactor concept thorium resources would be largely enough even after thousand years. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  15. Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor A development of the MSR concept is the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), utilizing U-233 which has been bred in a liquid thorium salt blanket. The molten salt in the core circuit consists of lithium, beryllium and fissile U-233 fluorides. It operates at some 700°C and circulates at low pressure within a graphite structure that serves as a moderator and neutron reflector. Most fission products dissolve or suspend in the salt and some of these are removed progressively in an adjacent radiochemical processing unit. Actinides are less-readily formed than in fuel with atomic mass greater than 235. The blanket circuit contains a significant amount of thorium tetrafluoride in the molten Li-Be fluoride salt. Safety is achieved with a freeze plug which if power is cut allows the fuel to drain into subcritical geometry in a catch basin. There is also a negative temperature coefficient of reactivity due to expansion of the fuel. The China Academy of Sciences in January 2011 launched an R&D program on LFTR, known there as the thorium-breeding molten-salt reactor (Th-MSR or TMSR), and claimed to have the world's largest national effort on it, hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  16. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  17. Accelerator-Driven Reactors: A number of groups have investigated how a thorium-fuelled accelerator-driven reactor (ADS) may work and appear. Perhaps most notable is the ‘ADTR’ design patented by a UK group. This reactor operates very close to criticality and therefore requires a relatively small proton beam to drive the spallation neutron source. Earlier proposals for ADS reactors required high-energy and high-current proton beams which are energy-intensive to produce, and for which operational reliability is a problem. Research Reactor ‘Kamini’: India has been operating a low-power U-233 fuelled reactor at Kalpakkam since 1996 – this is a 30 kWth experimental facility using U-233 in aluminium plates (a typical fuel-form for research reactors). Kamini is water cooled with a beryllia neutron reflector. The total mass of U-233 in the core is around 600 grams. It is noteworthy for being the only U-233 fuelled reactor in the world, though it does not in itself directly support thorium fuel R&D. The reactor is adjacent to the 40 MWt Fast Breeder Test Reactor in which ThO2 is irradiated, producing the U-233 for Kamini. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  18. India's plans for ThoriumCycle Withhuge resources of easily-accessible thorium and relatively little uranium, India has made utilization of thorium for large-scale energy production a major goal in its nuclear power programme, utilisingathree-stage concept: • Pressurised heavy water reactors (PHWRs) fuelled by natural uranium, plus light water reactors, producing plutonium. • Fast breeder reactors (FBRs) using plutonium-based fuel to breed U-233 from thorium. The blanket around the core will have uranium as well as thorium, so that further plutonium (particularly Pu-239) is produced as well as the U-233. • Advanced heavy water reactors (AHWRs) burn the U-233 and this plutonium with thorium, getting about 75% of their power from the thorium. The used fuel will then be reprocessed to recover fissile materials for recycling. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  19. This Indian programme has moved from aiming to be sustained simply with thorium to one 'driven' with the addition of further fissile plutonium from the FBR fleet, to give greater efficiency. In 2009, despite the relaxation of trade restrictions on uranium, India reaffirmed its intention to proceed with developing the thorium cycle. A 500 MWe prototype FBR under construction in Kalpakkam is designed to produce plutonium to enable AHWRs to breed U-233 from thorium. India is focusing and prioritizing the onstructionand commissioning of its sodium-cooled fast reactor fleet in which it will breed the required plutonium. This will take another 15 – 20 years and so it will still be some time before India is using thorium energy to a significant extent. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  20. China Thorium Fuel Phase one of the AECL agreement was a joint feasibility study to examine the economic feasibility of utilizing thorium in the Qinshan Phase III PHWRs. In July 2009, a second phase agreement was signed among these four parties to jointly develop and demonstrate the use of thorium fuel and to study the commercial and technical feasibility of its full-scale use in Candu units. This was supported in December 2009 by an expert panel appointed by CNNC and comprising representatives from China’s leading nuclear academic, government, industry and R&D organizations. The panel also unanimously recommended that China consider building two new Candu units to take advantage of the design's unique capabilities in utilizing alternative fuels Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  21. The China Academy of Sciences in January 2011 launched a programof R&D on thorium-breeding molten-salt reactors (Th-MSR or TMSR), otherwise known as Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor (LFTR), claiming to have the world's largest national effort on these and hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology.  A 5 MWe MSR is apparently under construction at Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (under the Academy) with 2015 target operation. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  22. AMR and Thorium production AMR is a mining company that focuses on Rare Earths, Minor Metals, Thorium&Uranium Exploration and Production in Turkey. AMR continues to advance its vast amount of resources aiming to start production of Rare Earths,Titanium, Zirconium,Uranium and Thorium in 2013. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  23. It is not a predictionto say thatThoriumwillbecomeone of themajorEnergysupplies in thenext 5 to 10 years. Withinthisrespect, AMR R&D studies of Thoriumareundertaken in connectionwithThoriumorganizations in theWorld. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  24. All known Thorium reserves in the world are associated with Rare Earth Minerals, where as AMR’s Thorium mineral is Thorite itself. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  25. Thorium is being produced in China and India as by-products of Rare Earth Elements. As China put quotas on its REE exports, the prices of this elements increased, and as a result REE projects in different countries are fast tracking their developments. In parallel, additions to Thorium producing countries in the World and an important increase in the amount of production is expected. Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  26. CONCLUSION Many countries are now focused of developing molten salt reactor with thorium fuel cycle. Somecompanies, countries or group of countries areworking to develop molten (or liquid) salt thorium reactors: • Kirk Sorensen’s Liquid-Fluoride Thorium Reactor (FLiBe) concept (USA). • Kazuo Furukawa’s Thorium Energy and Molten Salt Technology Inc. (IThEMS) Fuji Reactor concept (Japan). • China’s Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) concept. • Thorium Molten Salt Reactor-Non Moderated (TMSR-NM) supported by EURATOM and by the contributions of 18 institutes from France, Germany, Czech Republic, Hungary, Netherlands, Italy, UK, Slovakia and Russia Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

  27. Mineral Metal Inc. www.amrmineralmetal.com Dr. Reşat Uzmen --- AMR Group

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