International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum (English page)

"International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum" is a Non-Profit-Organization, which was registered to the local government of Japan in October, 2008. The members are researchers and engineers besides citizens, who are interested in the Molten Salt Reactor and related thorium cycles. At this moment, there are about 20 domestic members, and 10 foreign academic members from USA, France, Russia, Ukraine, Czech, China, and so on. There are other about 100 domestic people who are supporting occasionally. We will proceed research and design besides education, in order to promote the Molten Salt Reactor and related thorium cycles, which is described shortly at the end of this page.

Question or comments to click here (send an e-mail to us)..

Notice from ITMSF : "New President was assigned" The directors' board of this Forum assigned Ritsuo Yoshioka as a new president of this Forum. After 3.11 Fukushima accident, safer reactors are really needed, and also Thorium fuel cycle is more expected. So, we will continue the activity to realize Molten Salt Reactor, which is what prof. Furukawa has strongly desired. So, we hope your cooperation as before. 2012-Jan.-13 Ritsuo Yoshioka President "International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum"(ITMSF)

Dr. Kazuo Furukawa passed away. This is a very sad notice. Professor Kazuo Furukawa passed away on December 14th 2011 at age 84. He had a cancer surgery in last summer, and he once came back. And, in last October, he gave several lectures at different seminars (right photo was taken on Octover 25th), and also gave lectures on the Internet TVs, very actively. Since last November, he was in a hospital in order to relax his body, but it is a time we have to say the final words. I and other staffs will keep promoting his will, that is to realize Thorium MSR on this world. We hope your cooperation to this Forum, same as before. Dr. Furukawa's career is shown here (Click here) 2011-Dec.-14 "International Thorium Molten-Salt Forum (ITMSF)" Ritsuo Yoshioka

Dr.Furukawa's last article "THORMS-NES", click here or down-load to your PC (2MB PDF). Its title is "New Sustainable Secure Nuclear Industry Based on Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetics (THORIMS-NES)", and this is Section-17 of a book "Nuclear Power . Deployment, Operation and Sustainability".

1st partner site in USA::TEA: Thorium Energy Alliance(click here): TEA is an educational advocacy organization in USA, which is supporting to proceed the utilization of thorium energy mostly in the Molten Salt Reactor. 2nd partner site in USA::IThEO(click here): IThEO is "International Thorium Energy Organization", which is supporting to proceed the utilization of thorium energy mostly in the Molten Salt Reactor.

Winter 2010 "Thorium Energy Conference" The 3rd Thorium Energy Conference was held in London/UK on October 17th to 20th, 2010. Our Forum ITMSF presented 3 papers in this conference. Several foreign members of our Forum also presented/attended this conference. Kazuo Furukawa "Thorium Molten Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetic System" Ritsuo Yoshioka,. "Controllability of MSR-FUJI" Yoichiro Shimazu , "Proposals of a Preliminary Safety Criterion of MSRs for Abnormal Transients"

Conference was held at the Faraday Hall of the Royal Institution, where Michael Faraday gave a first lecture, and many novelists also gave lectures.

6th Seminar by the Forum In September 2010, the 6th seminar was held in Tokyo. The following speakers gave lectures on MSR and related thorium cycles. 1) "History of MSR design (from Dr. LeBlanc's lecture) by R. Yoshioka 2) "Recent movement on MSR" by K, Furukawa 3) "MSR using U235 fuel" by K. Mitachi, "MSR safety criteria" by R. Yoshioka

5th Seminar by the Forum In July 2010, the 5th seminar was held in Tokyo

4th Seminar by the Forum In April 2010, the 4th seminar was held in Tokyo. The following teachers gave lectures on MSR and related thorium cycles. 1)"Recent Study on MSR-FUJI and THORIMS-NES", by K, Furukawa 2)"Reprocessing Experiments of Thorium Fuel cycle for MSR" by. N. Satoh 3)"Thorium Energy Conference in USA", by R. Yoshioka 4)"Thorium MSR Development in China", by X. Xia ........60 people attended and discussed the subjects deeply.

Spring 2010 Thorium Energy Conference The Second Thorium Energy Alliance Conference held in Mountain View, California USA on March 29th and 30th 2010. Our Forum ITMSF presented 3 papers in this conference and our slides besides others one can be seen from the following site."http://www.thoriumenergyalliance.com/ThoriumSite/Spring2010Conf.htm (click the underlined part) Ritsuo Yoshioka, et al. "Molten-Salt Reactor FUJI and Related Thorium Cycles" Kazuo Furukawa et.al. "Thorium Molten Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetic System" Yoichiro Shimazu , "Preliminary Core Designs of Two Fluid Molten Salt Reactor"

We held 3 seminars in 2009, inviting the above people.
Also, we provided lectures to the public/university
We issued an Annual report. (In Japanese)

The president of this Forum is Dr. Kazuo Furukawa, who has been involving in this development for more than 40 years. His paper tilted "Effective Proposal for Non-proliferation" was selected and honored as the Best Paper Award in 2006 by the Sato-prize foundation (Sato-prize was started by former prime minister Eisaku Sato, who received a Novel Peace Prize).

THORIMS-NES (Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetics)

The reduction of CO2 emission is a global concern for all industrialized countries as is the development of new energy sources. Nuclear energy can play an important role in this context since it does not emit CO2 for power generation. As stressed by OECD, the share of nuclear energy forecasted at about 10% of the primary energy supply by 2050 is not enough and should be significantly increased to at least about 30 % in 2050 and 50 % in 2080 to drastically reduce emission of CO2 and to stabilize concentration of CO2 in atmosphere at low level. However, there are still some concerns and difficulties in the current nuclear power such as nuclear proliferation, radioactive waste, safety, economy, usability etc. Therefore, there is a need for a novel nuclear industry for a global scale usage.

The concept of the Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) was established more than 40 years ago.
During the 1960s, the US developed the Molten Salt Breeder Reactor (MSBR) as the primary back-up option for the fast breeder reactor (FBR). And a small Experimental Reactor (MSRE) was operated at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL).

There is now renewed interest in the concept in Japan, Russia, France and the USA, and one of the six Generation-IV designs selected for further development is the MSR. Strong incentives for the molten salt reactor design are its good fuel utilization, good economics, amazing fuel flexibility and promised large benefits.
In Japan, the nuclear energy system “THORIMS-NES (Thorium Molten-Salt Nuclear Energy Synergetic System)” is a new concept, designed such as to bring a novel huge size nuclear industry without any big investment.
Following several R&D years and a pilot scale prototype (miniFUJI), there is now a just started commercial project. It deals with the realization of a thorium-based molten salt reactor (Th-MSR: FUJI, cf. Fig.1).

The followings are the major advantages of the Th-MSR.

Fig.2 Concept of THORIMS-NES

AMSB (Accelerator Molten-Salt Breeding Facility) is a proton accelerator driven system (ADS), and produce U233 from Th232, by the neutrons from spallation reaction. (see Fig.3)

Fig.3 Concept of THORIMS-NES

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