Thorium: Issues and prospects in Malaysia

Journal Article · Wed Apr 29 04:00:00 EDT 2015 · AIP Conference Proceedings

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4916865· OSTI ID:22391633

AL-Areqi, Wadeeah M.; Majid, Amran Ab.; Sarmani, Sukiman

In Malaysia, thorium exists in minerals and rare earth elements production residue. The average range of thorium content in Malaysian monazite and xenotime minerals was found about 70,000 and 15,000 ppm respectively. About 2,636 tonnes of Malaysian monazite was produced for a period of 5 years (2006-2010) and based on the above data, it can be estimated that Malaysian monazite contains about 184.5 tonnes of thorium. Although thorium can become a major radiological problem to our environment, but with the significant deposit of thorium in Malaysian monazite, it has a prospect as a future alternative fuel in nuclear technology. This paper will discuss the thorium issues in Malaysia especially its long term radiological risks to public health and environment at storage and disposal stages, the prospect of exploring and producing high purity thorium from our rare earth elements minerals for future thorium based reactor. This paper also highlights the holistic approach in thorium recovery from Malaysian rare earth element production residue to reduce its radioactivity and extraction of thorium and rare earth elements from the minerals with minimum radiological impact to health and environment.

• OSTI ID: 22391633
• Journal Information: AIP Conference Proceedings, Journal Name: AIP Conference Proceedings Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 1659; ISSN APCPCS; ISSN 0094-243X
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
ALTERNATIVE FUELS
EXTRACTION
MALAYSIA
MONAZITES
NATURAL RADIOACTIVITY
NUCLEAR FUELS
RARE EARTHS
RESIDUES
THORIUM
THORIUM 232
THORIUM CYCLE
XENOTIME