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Thorium facts for kids

Kids Encyclopedia Facts

Thorium is a chemical element in actinide group. It is a weakly radioactive metal. It has a shiny, silvery white color. It has the chemical symbol Th and the atomic number 90. Natural thorium has an atomic weight of 232. Thorium is named after Thor, the Norse god of thunder. Its ores are found in nature, especially in India, the United States, and Australia. Many scientists believe thorium would make a good source of nuclear fuel because it makes much less waste and is four times as common as uranium. It makes 3,200,000 times as much energy as coal and 200 times as much energy as uranium, because natural uranium is mostly non-fissile isotopes. Scientists believe that there is enough of it to power the world for thousands of years.

Images for kids

  • Crystal structure of fluorite

    Thorium dioxide has the fluorite crystal structure. Th4+: __  /  O2−: __

  • Crystal structure of thorium tetrafluoride

    Crystal structure of thorium tetrafluorideTh4+: __  /  F−: __

  • Structure of thorocene

    Sandwich molecule structure of thorocene

  • Thor raising his hammer in a battle against the giants

    Thor's Fight with the Giants (1872) by Mårten Eskil Winge; Thor, the Norse god of thunder, raising his hammer Mjölnir in a battle against the giants.

  • Jöns Jacob Berzelius

    Jöns Jacob Berzelius, who first identified thorium as a new element

  • Gas mantle

    World War II thorium dioxide gas mantle

  • Glenn T. Seaborg

    Glenn T. Seaborg, who settled thorium's location in the f-block

  • Indian Point Energy Center

    The Indian Point Energy Center (Buchanan, New York, United States), home of the world's first thorium reactor

  • Three lenses from yellowed to transparent left-to-right

    Yellowed thorium dioxide lens (left), a similar lens partially de-yellowed with ultraviolet radiation (centre), and lens without yellowing (right)

  • Thorium mantle installed over a small sprout of grass

    Experiment on the effect of radiation (from an unburned thorium gas mantle) on the germination and growth of timothy-grass seed

See also

Kids robot.svg In Spanish: Torio para niños

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