US EditionChina Claims World-First Thorium Reactor Breakthrough
China’s 2 MW thorium molten salt reactor in the Gobi Desert demonstrates thorium-to-uranium conversion, validating thorium’s potential as a safe, sustainable nuclear fuel source.
- In April this year, Chinese Academy of Sciences researchers added fresh fuel to a 2 megawatt liquid‑fuelled thorium molten salt reactor in the Gobi Desert, achieving thorium‑to‑uranium conversion six months later.
- International estimates and local studies indicate China, a national resource holder, has thorium reserves lasting tens of thousands of years, with some local scientists estimating fuel for 60,000 years and Bayan Obo mining district yielding 1 million tons.
- As a fourth-generation reactor type, molten salt reactors use high-temperature molten salt coolant with water-free, low-pressure operations, while thorium-232 transmutes into uranium-233 for a self-sustaining breeding cycle.
- China has produced all key reactor components domestically to build an independent supply chain, and the institute aims to complete a 100-megawatt thermal prototype by 2035, researchers say.
- The breakthrough could reshape the future of clean nuclear energy by enabling safer fission with less waste and no water‑use cooling, strengthening China's thorium molten salt reactor programme in next‑generation nuclear research.
32 Articles
32 Articles
Thorium not only produces heat and electricity, but also fissile uranium for nuclear power plants. This is demonstrated by the test run at the Chinese thorium reactor TMSR-LF1, which produces risk-free nuclear power. China also wants to produce so violet-based hydrogen – cost-effectively as wind and sun could not. Worldwide there is much more thorium than uranium. However, this is needed for conventional nuclear power plants, which will lead to …
China Claims World-First Thorium Reactor Breakthrough
China has just unveiled a major breakthrough in nuclear reactor materials and technology that could pave the way to safer fission energy with less waste and no water use for cooling. In April this year, Chinese scientists successfully added fresh fuel to an operational experimental thorium molten salt reactor in the Gobi Desert. Six months later, the scientists from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics at the Chinese Academy of Science…
China achieves thorium-uranium nuclear fuel conversion in molten-salt reactor
China has achieved the first-ever thorium-to-uranium nuclear fuel conversion in an operational thorium-based molten salt reactor – the only one of its kind currently in operation worldwide. This technology aligns well with China's abundant thorium reserves.
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