Re:Japan team maps trove of rare earth elements
by noetic_techy on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @03:42PM
(#16814747)
They aren't rare, they are just really expensive to mine and process in the western world. The chemicals involved are nasty and radioactive waste is one of the byproducts. China has lax enough environmental laws and is willing to absorb the blow. Wonder if enough R&D could solve the processing problems.
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Re:Japan team maps trove of rare earth elements
by SquirrelOnFire on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @03:59PM
(#16814913)
My understanding is that the main radioactive waste from rare earth mining is Thorium - a pretty easy to handle material (the US just buries it in landfills, which is enough to contain it) with the potential to be a valuable resource in itself once LFTRs get off the ground again, which China and India are working pretty hard on.
Re:Japan team maps trove of rare earth elements
by mchannon on Wednesday April 11, 2018 @04:16PM
(#16815104)
The main radioactive waste from rare earth mining is indeed Thorium. It is not a pretty easy to handle material. Check out https://projects.newyorker.com/story/radioactive-nyc/ to learn how Thorium from rare earth refining a century ago made NYC into a radioactive waste site.
Thorium is not responsibly managed in landfills.
LFTR's have never "gotten off the ground". Even if they achieved some extraordinary combination of breakthroughs over the next 10 years, we wouldn't come close to using all the available Thorium that exists near the REE we have. As a fertile (but not fissile) element, Thorium demand will be inextricably linked to Uranium supply, even for LFTR.