A Kinder, Gentler Nuclear Energy

TAU nuclear energy technique will help thwart nuclear terrorism, says inventor Prof. Alvin Radkowsky

TAU researcher has been granted a patent by the US Patent Office for an invention in nuclear energy. "If adopted by world governments, it will dramatically reduce the threat of nuclear weapons proliferation as well as provide cheaper, cleaner and safer nuclear power," says Prof. Alvin Radkowsky, inventor of the new technology.

The new technology is known as the Non-Proliferative Light Water Thorium Reactor, or Radkowsky Thorium Reactor (RTR) for short. The basic principle involves using thorium instead of uranium for much of the fuel in the core of nuclear reactors. Currently, all the approximately 400 commercial light water reactors in the world discharge over 70 tons of plutonium a year. According to the Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, only a few kilograms of plutonium is needed to make a nuclear bomb. The RTR does not produce any by-products which could possibly be used for making weapons.

Thorium is much more plentiful and cheaper than uranium but, until now, no practical method was found to exploit thorium"s potential in nuclear energy production.

Other advantages of the RTR are a major reduction in nuclear waste, in terms of quantity, toxicity, radioactivity, and heat emission. Currently, countries with nuclear power are facing severe problems in storing nuclear waste, which can cost up to billions of dollars. The RTR could also reduce nuclear power costs by 20 to 30 percent, in part due to savings in uranium. Fortunately, the RTR core is exactly the same size as present standard uranium cores, making its substitution very easy.

The RTR technology is being considered by US, Russian, and Japanese research institutions. Last month it was presented by Professor Radkowsky to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, and is being considered for recommendation by the Agency. A cooperation agreement has recently been signed with Nuclear Fuel Industries, Ltd., of Japan. A prototype RTR is being designed and tested at the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow with US government funding, and should be ready by 2000.

Prof. Radkowsky believes that Western governments should be pressured into selling only RTR-type nuclear reactors to developing nations. The RTR can be installed in developing countries which lack natural sources of power such as coal, oil or even firewood, without fear that unstable governments may divert the reactor fuel for weapon purposes.

Prof. Radkowsky was Chief Scientist of the US Naval Nuclear Propulsion Program from 1948 to 1972. He received a special award from the Secretary of the US Navy for an invention which made it possible to lengthen the endurance of naval reactor cores from several months to many years. This invention has been declassified and is now used by almost all commercial reactors.

Prof. Radkowsky joined TAU's Faculty of Engineering in 1972. Funding for his research on RTRs came from the Raytheon Corp., Nuclear Division and private investors.