Chinese scientists make nuclear power breakthrough using abandoned US research

> For the first time ever, scientists in China have refueled an experimental nuclear reactor without shutting it down — a significant advance in weaning the world off fossil fuels and onto more efficient, low-carbon energy sources

> The breakthrough, achieved using a prototype molten-salt design which runs on liquid thorium instead of uranium, means that China “now leads the global frontier” in nuclear innovation.

> Thorium reactors were first developed in the 1950s in the U.S., **before it went all-in on uranium**, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. **Following this decision, this early research was later declassified**, and the Chinese researchers made use of it for the current project.

> The secret facility housing the reactor, which came online in June 2024, is reportedly **hidden away in the Gobi Desert** in the north of the country near the Mongolian border. It can sustainably generate two megawatts (2MW) of energy — enough to power up to 2,000 households and about twice the minimum of standard utility-scale generators.

> Molten salt nuclear reactors are considered significantly safer than their solid fuel counterparts as they can’t suffer a meltdown — their already molten fuel simply cools and solidifies when exposed to air. This means that disasters such as those that happened at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 wouldn’t be possible with a thorium reactor. The reactors also produce significantly less nuclear waste than standard uranium reactors.

Awesome

It’s great to see another man’s trash is another man’s treasure 👍🤣

Feels like every story about nuclear ought to have a box out that says: “Oh, don’t forget, the waste has to be buried in the ground for hundreds of thousands of years because it is insanely dangerous. But other than that, sure, it’s great!”