Efforts have been applied to initiate usage of thorium and its radioactivity as a power source; the earliest thorium-based reactor was made in India: the first core at the Indian Point Energy Center in 1962.[102] India has one of the largest supplies of thorium in the world but does not have much uranium used elsewhere, and targeted in the 1950s at achieving energy independence for the country with their three-stage nuclear power programme.[103][104] On the other hand, in most countries, the progress staggered because uranium was relatively abundant and the progress of thorium-based reactors was therefore slow (in the 20th century, 3 reactors were opened in India and 12 elsewhere[105]). Large-scale research was begun in 1996 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to study the use of thorium reactors; a year later, the U.S. Energy Department began their research on the matter. Nuclear scientist Alvin Radkowsky of Tel Aviv University in Israel, the head designer of the American first civilian nuclear power plant at Shippingport, Pennsylvania whose third core bred thorium,[106] founded a consortium to develop thorium reactors, which included other companies: Raytheon Nuclear Inc. and Brookhaven National Laboratory in the U.S. and the Kurchatov Institute in Russia.[107] In the 21st century, thorium's potential for improving proliferation resistance and waste characteristics led to renewed interest in the thorium fuel cycle.[108][109][110]
Reference 1: Reserves.
Reference 2: United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Other countries and World total.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
Reference 2: United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Other countries and World total.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorium
