![](https://i.imgur.com/CLvY2jA.png")
21-08-2023, 09:41 AM
David Rogers
26.06.23
Chinese authorities have issued an operational permit for the country’s first thorium reactor. The decision comes two years after researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics unveiled a prototype, which was billed as the first reactor that did not require water for cooling.
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thorium is less radioactive than uranium or plutonium, produces less toxic waste and cannot be used to create nuclear weapons. And because it is in liquid form, it solidifies in the event of a disaster, which would limit environmental damage.
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The reactor also has advantages that are more specific to China, since the country is thought to have several hundred thousand tonnes of the element, or enough to meet its total energy needs for more than 20,000 years.
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As well as their inherent safety advantages, thorium molten salt SMRs can be located in many types of environments, including remote, desert or off-grid areas. This may have benefits for industries such as mining, which often require reliable power sources far from water or conventional utilities.
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China is not the first country to build a thorium reactor – Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US built a prototype in the sixties, but never progressed beyond that stage.
......
India also looked at the possibility of thorium reactors in the 1980s, but that programme was halted before the development of a commercial unit.
https://www.globalconstructionreview.com...%20cooling.
26.06.23
Chinese authorities have issued an operational permit for the country’s first thorium reactor. The decision comes two years after researchers at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics unveiled a prototype, which was billed as the first reactor that did not require water for cooling.
......
thorium is less radioactive than uranium or plutonium, produces less toxic waste and cannot be used to create nuclear weapons. And because it is in liquid form, it solidifies in the event of a disaster, which would limit environmental damage.
......
The reactor also has advantages that are more specific to China, since the country is thought to have several hundred thousand tonnes of the element, or enough to meet its total energy needs for more than 20,000 years.
......
As well as their inherent safety advantages, thorium molten salt SMRs can be located in many types of environments, including remote, desert or off-grid areas. This may have benefits for industries such as mining, which often require reliable power sources far from water or conventional utilities.
......
China is not the first country to build a thorium reactor – Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the US built a prototype in the sixties, but never progressed beyond that stage.
......
India also looked at the possibility of thorium reactors in the 1980s, but that programme was halted before the development of a commercial unit.
https://www.globalconstructionreview.com...%20cooling.
