‘No quick wins’: China has the world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor
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Team working on project reportedly achieves milestone by completing fuel reloading while experimental molten salt reactor was running.

Chinese scientists have achieved a milestone in clean energy technology by successfully adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor, according to state media reports.

It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, putting China at the forefront of a global race to harness thorium – considered a safer and more abundant alternative to uranium – for nuclear power.

The development was announced by the project’s chief scientist, Xu Hongjie, during a closed-door meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences on April 8, the official Guangming Daily reported on Friday.

The experimental reactor, located in the Gobi Desert in China’s west, uses molten salt as the fuel carrier and coolant, and thorium – a radioactive element abundant in the Earth’s crust – as the fuel source. The reactor is reportedly designed to sustainably generate 2 megawatts of thermal power.

Some experts see the technology as the next energy revolution and claim that just one thorium-rich mine in Inner Mongolia could – theoretically – meet China’s energy needs for tens of thousands of years, while producing minimal radioactive waste.

A much bigger thorium molten salt reactor is already being built in China and is slated to achieve criticality by 2030. That research reactor is designed to produce 10 megawatts of electricity.

China’s state-owned shipbuilding industry has also unveiled a design for thorium-powered container ships that could potentially achieve emission-free maritime transport.

Meanwhile, US efforts to revive the development of a molten salt reactor remain on paper, despite bipartisan congressional support and Department of Energy initiatives.

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  • @halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
    53•2 months ago

    I get so tired of these shit takes that obviously haven’t put much thought into the topic based on the clear barely surface level perspective, but love to repeat the same talking points confidently.

    1. It’s a research reactor, it will be relatively small because it’s not intended to provide a production power source.
    2. It can operate 24 hours a day, independent of weather or most external variables.
    3. Its power is variable and can handle varying loads on demand.

    Most renewables like solar and wind cannot handle the second and third points well, of at all. And options that can like hydro and geothermal power are very location dependent.

    You need to stop thinking of nuclear as an alternative to renewables and instead as the replacement for the fossil fuel plants that provide base power generation 24/7/365 like coal, gas, and the peaker plants.

    Renewables alone do not solve modern societal power needs, but we can replace fossil fuels immediately with better options, like nuclear. As it is uranium power plants are extremely misunderstood by the public from decades of disinformation from the fossil fuel AND renewable industries and a fundamental misunderstanding of radioactivity by the public. Thorium specifically goes around that by removing the uranium Boogeyman, and meltdown risk. Most molten salt reactor designs operate on a Fail-Safe design principle that doesn’t require power to continuously cool the fuel to prevent meltdown like most current uranium reactors do, instead requiring power to prevent that failsafe, often via an ice plug actively keeping the fuel in the system for operation.

    • Diplomjodler
      10•2 months ago

      The old “renewables can’t do intermittency” trope is so tired by now. Battery storage is taking off in a big way and solar is simply unstoppable. Nuclear is never going to be an economically viable technology any more.

      • @halcyoncmdr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21•2 months ago

        And yet, it is still true. Renewables that work via environmental factors like wind and solar will always be reliant on something else to help store excess power, and those storage options are still very limited. Battery storage is taking off, but it is still nowhere near the level to run an entire city for an extended period of time like overnight.

        We still need a base load option that’s reliably available at any time and quickly scaleable to handle burst demand. That is currently handled by fossil fuels, and can be directly replaced via nuclear, essentially as a drop in nearly 1 for 1 replacement.

        • Diplomjodler
          4•2 months ago

          That’s what the fossil and nuke lobby have been claiming for decades and they have been wrong at every turn. They’ll still be making the same claims once we’re at 100% renewable, which is pretty much inevitable at this point.