system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5 how Thorium reactors are cleaner than regular Uranium reactors

The way I see it Thorium reactors only works because it decays into U-233 after throwing neutrons at Th-232. Thorium in itself doesn't have enough fissile material to power itself either. Then what is so great about U-233 compared to U-235/U-238? The merit of U-233 must be in its waste, right? How do we know which materials come out of each reaction and in which quantity, or is that trial and error? I know for example Pl-239 has a half life of like 15000 years. Can we not hypothetically throw neutrons at the waste until it transforms into an isotope with a shorter half life?

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(yes yes, many questions, don't need to answer all literally, I just want to understand the process in general I suppose. Don't have a chemistry background but I can sort of follow some jargon)
gpt
Thorium reactor waste has shorter-lived isotopes, there's a lot more Th-232 around than U-235 since it's stable and making a nuclear bomb is harder from the isotopes in thorium cycle.

> Can we not hypothetically throw neutrons at the waste until it transforms into an isotope with a shorter half life?

No, because throwing neutrons in will also result stable atoms to turn to radioactive isotopes at the same time.