An experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics has achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion, paving the way for an almost endless supply of nuclear energy.
The achievement makes the 2 megawatt liquid-fuelled thorium-based molten salt reactor (TMSR) the only operating example of the technology in the world to have successfully loaded and used thorium fuel.
According to the academy, the experiment has provided initial proof of the technical feasibility of using thorium resources in molten salt reactor systems and represents a major leap forward for the technology.
It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to acquire experimental data on thorium operations from inside a molten salt reactor, according to a report by Science and Technology Daily.
The article, published on Saturday, was China’s first official confirmation of its success in the development of TMSR technology, an innovation that is poised to reshape the future of clean sustainable nuclear energy.
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Li Qingnuan, Communist Party secretary and deputy director at the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, told the newspaper that “since achieving first criticality on October 11, 2023, the thorium molten salt reactor has been steadily generating heat through nuclear fission”.
