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Comment by DennisP

4 months ago

Thorium does not get angry, because it's only slightly radioactive and it's not fissile. To start up a thorium reactor, you need enough plutonium or uranium spitting out neutrons to convert plenty of thorium to U233, which is what fissions and makes energy.

If you want an actual bomb, you need that U233 without any thorium, because the thorium mostly just turns to U233 when it absorbs a thermal neutron (i.e. slowed down by a moderator like graphite). In a bomb you're relying on fast neutrons.

Read enough books/articles on thorium reactors and you'll come across a photo of the US thorium stockpile, which is a great big stack of pure thorium bricks.