Uses of Thorium
An exciting possibility for the future is fueling nuclear reactors with thorium. Not only is thorium more abundant on Earth than uranium, but 1 ton of mined thorium can produce as much energy as 200 tons of mined uranium.
The difference in the energy output of the two elements arises because most uranium mined is uranium-238, which is not fissile. (Naturally occurring uranium is over 99% uranium-238 with only about 0.7% of the fissile uranium-235.) Nearly all mined thorium, however, can easily be made into the fissile uranium isotope uranium-233 through neutron bombardment (as shown above).