Thorium-232

Thorium-232 (²³²
Th) is the main naturally occurring isotope of thorium, with a relative abundance of 99.98%. It has a half-life of 14.0 billion years, which makes it the longest-lived isotope of thorium. It decays by alpha decay to radium-228; its decay chain terminates at stable lead-208.

Thorium-232

General
Symbol	232Th
Names	thorium-232
Protons (Z)	90
Neutrons (N)	142
Nuclide data
Natural abundance	99.98%[1]
Half-life (t1/2)	1.40×1010 years[1]
Isotope mass	232.0380536[2] Da
Spin	0+
Parent isotopes	236U (α) 232Ac (β−)
Decay products	228Ra
Decay modes
Decay mode	Decay energy (MeV)
alpha decay	4.0816[3]
Isotopes of thorium Complete table of nuclides

Thorium-232 is a fertile material; it can capture a neutron to form thorium-233, which subsequently undergoes two successive beta decays to uranium-233, which is fissile. As such, it has been used in the thorium fuel cycle in nuclear reactors; various prototype thorium-fueled reactors have been designed. However, as of 2024, thorium fuel has not been widely adopted for commercial-scale nuclear power.

Natural occurrence

The half-life of thorium-232 (14 billion years) is more than three times the age of the Earth; thorium-232 therefore occurs in nature as a primordial nuclide. Other thorium isotopes occur in nature in much smaller quantities as intermediate products in the decay chains of uranium-238, uranium-235, and thorium-232.

Some minerals that contain thorium include apatite, sphene, zircon, allanite, monazite, pyrochlore, thorite, and xenotime.^[4]

Decay [1]

Thorium-232 has a half-life of 14 billion years; it is itself an essentially pure alpha emitter with its first decay product radium-228. This is itself unstable; and leads to a decay chain known as the thorium series, which terminates at stable lead-208. The intermediates in the thorium-232 decay chain are all relatively short-lived; the longest-lived intermediate decay products are radium-228 and thorium-228, with half-lives of 5.75 years and 1.91 years, respectively. All others have half-lives under four days. There are no minor branches in this chain, and it proceeds as shown:

${\displaystyle {\begin{array}{l}{}\\{\ce {^{232}_{90}Th->[\alpha ][1.40\times 10^{10}\ {\ce {y}}]{^{228}_{88}Ra}->[\beta ^{-}][5.75\ {\ce {y}}]{^{228}_{89}Ac}->[\beta ^{-}][6.15\ {\ce {h}}]{^{228}_{90}Th}->[\alpha ][1.9125\ {\ce {y}}]{^{224}_{88}Ra}->[\alpha ][3.632\ {\ce {d}}]{^{220}_{86}Rn}}}\\{\ce {^{220}_{86}Rn->[\alpha ][55.6\ {\ce {s}}]{^{216}_{84}Po}->[\alpha ][0.144\ {\ce {s}}]{^{212}_{82}Pb}->[\beta ^{-}][10.627\ {\ce {h}}]{^{212}_{83}Bi}}}{\begin{Bmatrix}{\ce {->[64.06\%\beta ^{-}][60.55\ {\ce {min}}]{^{212}_{84}Po}->[\alpha ][294.4\ {\ce {ns}}]}}\\{\ce {->[35.94\%\alpha ][60.55\ {\ce {min}}]{^{208}_{81}Tl}->[\beta ^{-}][3.053\ {\ce {min}}]}}\end{Bmatrix}}{\ce {^{208}_{82}Pb}}\end{array}}}$

Or the same in tabular form:

Nuclide	Decay mode	Half-life (a = years)	Energy released MeV	Decay product
232Th	α	1.40×1010 a	4.082	228Ra
228Ra	β−	5.75 a	0.046	228Ac
228Ac	β−	6.15 h	2.123	228Th
228Th	α	1.9125 a	5.520	224Ra
224Ra	α	3.632 d	5.789	220Rn
220Rn	α	55.6 s	6.405	216Po
216Po	α	0.144 s	6.906	212Pb
212Pb	β−	10.627 h	0.569	212Bi
212Bi	β− 64.06% α 35.94%	60.55 min	2.252 6.207	212Po 208Tl
212Po	α	294.4 ns	8.954	208Pb
208Tl	β−	3.053 min	4.999	208Pb
208Pb	stable

Rare decay modes

Although thorium-232 mainly alpha-decays, it also undergoes spontaneous fission 1.1×10⁻⁹% of the time, for a partial half-life of 1.3×10²¹ years, the longest known for that mode. Double beta decay to uranium-232 is also theoretically possible, but has not been observed.

Use in nuclear power

Main articles: Thorium-based nuclear power and Thorium fuel cycle

Thorium-232 is not fissile; it therefore cannot be used directly as fuel in nuclear reactors. However, ²³²
Th is fertile: it can capture a neutron to form ²³³
Th, which undergoes a beta decay with a half-life of 21.8 minutes to ²³³
Pa, then another with a half-life of 27 days to form fissile ²³³
U.^[5]

One potential advantage of a thorium-based nuclear fuel cycle is that thorium is three times more abundant than uranium, the current fuel for commercial nuclear reactors. It is also more difficult to produce material suitable for nuclear weapons from the thorium fuel cycle compared to the uranium fuel cycle. Some proposed designs for thorium-fueled nuclear reactors include the molten salt reactor and a fast neutron reactor, among others. Although thorium-based nuclear reactors have been proposed since the 1960s and several prototype reactors have been built, there has been relatively little research on the thorium fuel cycle compared to the more established uranium fuel cycle; thorium-based nuclear power has not seen large-scale commercial use as of 2024. Nevertheless, some countries such as India have actively pursued thorium-based nuclear power.^[5]