|
|
|
|
National Tree Day Planet Ark Home
|
|
|
||
|
Norway Sets Study of Thorium for Energy Production |
||
|
Mail this story to a friend | Printer friendly version
|
||
| NORWAY: February 9, 2007 | ||
|
OSLO - Norwegian energy authorities have commissioned a study on the prospects for exploiting Norway's relatively large reserves of thorium, a naturally occurring radioactive metal, in energy production.
|
||
|
Thorium is seen as a possible alternative to uranium as a fuel for nuclear power generation and India is already planning to use it in future power stations. The Ministry of Petroleum and Energy commissioned the Research Council of Norway to administer the study, the ministry said in a statement on Thursday. "The commission to be formed will carry out a study to establish the best possible factual basis in respect both to the opportunities and risks of using thorium in energy production in the long term," Oil and Energy Minister Odd Roger Enoksen said. Norway is estimated to have the world's third biggest thorium reseves, but so far none of it has been exploited, said Viktor Wikstrom, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Technology (IFE) which will take part in the study. Norway is rich in hydropower and has no nuclear power production of its own.
|
||
|
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
|
||
|
