China gets thorium molten salt reactor working

[Micael]

So short story is they get a hold of the declassified US research into thorium reactors from way back, picked it apart and validated the findings in it. Then they developed it further and now they essentially seem to have cracked it. Enabling the use of thorium fuel for power generation could be huge.

SHANGHAI, Nov. 1 (Xinhua) -- China has successfully achieved the first-ever thorium to uranium nuclear fuel conversion in a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR), and obtained valid experimental data following thorium fuel loading, confirming the technical feasibility of thorium utilization in a molten-salt reactor nuclear energy system, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) on Saturday.
The experimental TMSR, which was built by SINAP in collaboration with other Chinese institutions, is currently the only operational molten-salt reactor in the world loaded with thorium fuel. The realization of thorium-uranium conversion marks a milestone in TMSR development, providing core technical support and a feasible solution for China's large-scale development and utilization of thorium resources, and for the future progress of advanced nuclear energy systems.
Molten-salt reactors are fourth-generation advanced nuclear energy systems that use high-temperature molten salt as a coolant. They boast inherent safety features, cool without water, run at atmospheric pressure, and deliver a high-temperature output. These features mean the reactors are widely recognized as the most suitable type for thorium resource utilization in nuclear energy production.
This technological route aligns particularly well with China's abundant thorium reserves. It also allows for deep integration with industries such as solar power, wind power, high-temperature molten-salt energy storage, high-temperature hydrogen production, coal chemical engineering and petrochemical engineering, facilitating the construction of a complementary, low-carbon, integrated energy system.
According to SINAP, the TMSR program was launched in 2011, achieving major progress from laboratory research to the engineering verification of core materials, equipment and technologies. With domestically developed core equipment and an independent supply chain, China has established complete TMSR technology and industrial chains in basic terms.
SINAP said that it will work with leading energy companies to consolidate the TMSR industrial and supply chains, and accelerate technology iteration and engineering application. The ultimate goal is to construct a 100-megawatt demonstration project and realize its demonstration application by 2035.

[Nik_SpeakerToCats]

Hopefully, fares *much* better than their '5yr Fusion Plan', which softly and silently vanished away...

[Pdf27]

Interesting point about an MSR is that it offers a route to the permanent destruction of high-level waste. The really hot stuff can be managed by hold-up and decay, while the very long-term stuff isn't terribly risky. It's the stuff that is dangerous for a few centuries that is a real pain, and it's possible to handle that very effectively by dissolving it in the MSR fluid and transmuting it to short term/really hot with a safe decay chain using the excess neutron flux. Nobody was going to build an MSR just for that, but if you already have them it starts to get interesting.