thorium-232

the fertile materials uranium-238 and thorium-232, respectively. A fertile material, not itself capable of undergoing fission with low-energy neutrons, is one that decays into fissile material after neutron absorption within a reactor. Thorium-232 and uranium-238 are the only two naturally occurring fertile materials.

…isotopes, predominantly the very long-lived thorium-232 (1.40 × 10¹⁰-year half-life), the parent of the thorium radioactive decay series. Other isotopes occur naturally in the uranium and actinium decay series, and thorium is present in all uranium ores. Thorium-232 is useful in breeder reactors because on capturing slow-moving neutrons

uranium-235, uranium-238, and thorium-232. Because of this decay, the helium content of any mineral or rock capable of retaining helium will increase during the lifetime of that mineral or rock, and the ratio of helium to its radioactive progenitors then becomes a measure of geologic time. If the…

…in nature is the isotope thorium-232 (several other isotopes exist in trace amounts or can be produced synthetically). This slightly radioactive material is not fissile itself, but it can be transformed in a nuclear reactor to the fissile uranium-233. Since thorium is present in the Earth’s crust in about three…

Uranium-238 and thorium-232 (and some other fissionable materials) cannot maintain a self-sustaining fission explosion, but these isotopes can be made to fission by an externally maintained supply of fast neutrons from fission or fusion reactions. Thus, the yield of a nuclear weapon can be increased by surrounding…

…uranium-238 and the thorium isotope thorium-232.

…important are uranium-235, uranium-238, and thorium-232—and a few with a lower atomic number, such as potassium-40.

When a nucleus of thorium-232 absorbs, or “captures,” a neutron, it becomes thorium-233, whose half-life is approximately 21.83 minutes. After that time the nuclide decays through electron emission to protactinium-233, whose half-life is 26.967 days. The protactinium-233 nuclide in turn decays through electron emission to yield uranium-233.