Education and Training Series #11: General Considerations on Thorium as a Nuclear Fuel
Part of a webinar series hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group since 2016.
Who should attend?
Policymakers, industry professionals, regulators, researchers, students, the general public.
About the "GIF Education and Training" Webinars
These webinars, organised by the GIF Education and Training Working Group are streamed live monthly. The recordings and slide decks are accessible after the webinar on this website. These webinars cover a very broad range of technical and policy related topics. At the end of 2023 they have been viewed by more than 15000 people (approximately half of the views during the live streams and the other half views being of the archives on the public GIF website). In total, the GIF webinars have reached Generation IV enthusiasts, scientists, and engineers in more than 80 countries.
These webinars are organised and hosted by the GIF Education and Training Working Group (ETWG).
About this Webinar
This webinar will present an overview of the basic concepts behind the historical interest on the use of thorium as a nuclear fuel. It will aim at reviewing thorium’s real potential and the many challenges it is facing before it can be part of the solution to the world’s energy problems. It is aimed at giving some of the scientific elements to a general audience in order to “demystify the thorium question” which has regained some prominence in recent years when talking about future nuclear concepts.
Presentation made during the webinar
Meet the presenter
Dr. Franco Michel-Sendis is responsible for the co-ordination of Nuclear Data Services and Criticality Safety Activities at the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) under the Data Bank and the Nuclear Science Division, since 2010. From 2011 to 2016 he also served as NEA scientific secretary to the Generation IV Molten Salt Reactor System Steering Committee and coordinated the NEA report “Introduction of Thorium in the Nuclear Fuel Cycle.” Dr. Michel-Sendis holds a B.Sc and M.Sc in physics from the University of Paris (UPMC) and a Ph.D. in nuclear reactor physics from the University of Paris-Sud Orsay.