Thorium, an abundant and safer alternative to uranium, could soon become a vital resource in the quest to meet energy needs.

A rare earth element called thorium has been discovered in large quantities in China's Bayan Obo mining complex in the Inner ...

For decades, atomic clocks have been the pinnacle of precision timekeeping, enabling GPS navigation, cutting-edge physics research, and tests of fundamental theories. But researchers are now pushing ...

A thorium-doped calcium fluoride crystal's temperature is continually monitored while a VUV frequency comb is used to directly resolve individual quantum states of the nuclear transition.

Scientists estimate that the Bayan Obo mining complex, if fully utilised, could yield 1 million tonnes of thorium—enough to sustain China’s energy needs for an astonishing 60,000 years ...

Special thanks to Chuankun Zhang, Tian Ooi, Jacob S. Higgins, and Jack F. Doyle from Prof. Jun Ye's lab at JILA/NIST/University of Colorado, as well as Prof. Victor Flambaum from UNS ...

China has announced the discovery of vast thorium reserves, a radioactive metal being hailed as a potential " limitless " ...

Thorium is a relatively abundant, slightly radioactive element which is commonly produced as a byproduct of mining rare-earth metals. On its own, thorium isn't fissile, which means it doesn't ...

A top-down view of an experimental thorium-based nuclear reactor from the 1960s. (Photo: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, US Department of Energy) The sands of India are brimming with potential to fuel ...

Camera lenses? A few decades ago, camera companies added rare elements like thorium to their glass to change the optical properties in desirable ways. The downside? Well, it made the lenses ...