Like I already stated before in one of my previous posts, belbear is probably correct in that you would be fighting an uphill battle against the binding energy curve. Thorium is way past iron on the periodic table, where heavy elements begin to absorb energy rather than release it. And like I also stated in one of the previous posts, even the energy of the PDF is probably not sufficient……you would need the hellish temperature and pressure of an absolutely cataclysmic supernova.

In one of my previous posts, I also mentioned how thorium might also absorb something else more massive like an alpha particle (helium nucleus) instead……that might cause it to leapfrog over the slow decay step of protactinium……and go directly to an unstable uranium or something similar. However, this does not seem very likely either……for the exact same reason. You would still be fighting the binding energy curve, which would probably cool the plasma down way more than the fission would add to it.

I’m not even sure the use of the focus fusion PDF as a driver for a subcritical thorium reactor would even be feasible or be able to work. Interesting thought, but seems unlikely to work the more you think about it.