Could someone theoretically build there own thorium nuclear reactor in there own backyard or is there federal limits

Probably. I don't think Odin would really appreciate you experimenting on his son like this in your backyard.

Depends on whether you include the required licensing (which would require significant bribes) in the 'rich enough'. Otherwise just possession of the materials would be a crime.

Only one way to find out, LVDealer!

And you can tell us all about it afterwards.

After you've mysteriously gotten away with it, of course.

No, there are regulations in place for radioactive materials. Hence why Doc Brown needed to buy his radioactive materials from Libyan terrorists in the 80's.

You don't need to be rich to build a nuclear reactor, and it might be possible to build a thorium reactor on a small scale, and if you were successful you wouldn't be the first. Though there are federal limits from multiple agencies...the big ones being the NRC and the EPA. Check out the name David Hahn (though his was not a thorium reactor). That being said, using radioactive materials requires acquiring them which requires mountains of a paperwork and physical safeguards. You can obtain radioactive materials though from everyday items, you just need to collect a lot of them. That is what David Hahn tried to do back in 2007.

Okay, that was hilarious. Thanx for the lead.

Pretty sure he just succeeded in giving himself radiation poisoning.

I think the main worry would be if you "disappeared" to save the government a headache from building your own nuclear reactor.

It's not known whether or not he was successful in building a reactor, obviously it never reached critical mass. Though you don't need to achieve critical mass to achieve nuclear fission, it is only needed to sustain it. So it is possible that he could have succeeded.

Whether he did or not will never be truly known since he dismantled everything before anyone found out. He actually caught by police when he had tried carting off the used materials.

The purpose of a reactor is to sustain fission isn't it? Making his project a failure.

Was on the blackmarket website to figure out costs...then these men in suits took my computer . Still got phone tho!

Better post about it before the police show up.

Fission is naturally occurring. The reactor increases the fission rate in a controlled fashion. In one of the articles I saw it said his intent was to build a breeder reactor, used to generate a neutron flux which will create rare (or even non-naturally occurring) isotopes. It is possible that he succeeded at that at some small scale before he took it apart. A power reactor is a whole different beast. If he built one of those we would know, because even a very small power reactor would have melted something...probably him.

I'm sure there are places that would welcome you with open arms if you offered to build them a nuclear reactor.