
China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium - tfy11aro
http://www.thoriumenergyworld.com/press-release/china-invests-big-in-clean-and-cheap-energy-from-thorium
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philipkglass
AFAICT this article offers no dates, no numbers, and no primary sources. China
_did_ announce a thorium research program back in 2011, and continues to
publish research, but I don't see any notable recent developments reported on
other sites.

The IAEA does not currently list any reactors matching this description in
operation or under construction in China:

[https://pris.iaea.org/pris/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails....](https://pris.iaea.org/pris/CountryStatistics/CountryDetails.aspx?current=CN)

World Nuclear News does not have any recent stories about Chinese thorium
reactors.

Is this article just a rehash of old news? Or has a Chinese thorium reactor
achieved criticality recently? Videos of simulations and 3D renderings are a
dime a dozen. New reactor concepts are interesting only when someone operates
real hardware. China _can_ do so but there's nothing in this article that
makes me think it _has_ just done so.

~~~
tim333
Something here: [https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chinese-government-invest-
bil...](https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/chinese-government-invest-billions-
molten-salt-reactor-deng/)

>[late 2017] China Academy of Sciences and the government of Gansu Province
signed a co-operation agreement to work together on China’s Thorium Molten
Salt Reactor (TMSR) project and to have a demonstration or research reactor
built in Gansu Province by 2020.

>The total investment was planed to be 22 billion CNY (3 billion USD)

~~~
philipkglass
Right, some other documents I found indicated that there would be a research
reactor scheduled for 2020. But the documents I found about it were from
before 2018. I couldn't understand why this story was published in August
2018. There doesn't appear to be anything new happening right now. The next
interesting development will be when the research reactor actually starts up,
hopefully in 2020.

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Animats
Is there a better source for this than "Thorium Energy World"?

~~~
fspeech
You can try googling "Chinese TMSR Strategic Pioneer Science and Technology
Project site:sinap.ac.cn" and "TMSR site:sinap.ac.cn". Or even just "thorium
site:sinap.ac.cn".

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ChuckMcM
This is basically translated from the Shanghai Institute of Applied physics
(www.sinap.ac.cn) press releases.

It will be interesting if China develops a complete Thorium fuel cycle and the
reactor designs to take advantage of it.

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fastbeef
Wasn’t Bill Gates a strong proponent for (and even investor in?) thorium
reactors? Did that pan out?

~~~
adventured
Gates has put a lot of money into TerraPower to develop their traveling wave
reactor tech:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TerraPower)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traveling_wave_reactor)

And routinely works eg with China:

[Nov 2017] "Bill Gates' nuclear firm TerraPower and the China National Nuclear
Corporation have signed an agreement to develop a world-first nuclear reactor,
using other nuclear reactors' waste"

[https://www.smh.com.au/business/bill-gates-and-china-
partner...](https://www.smh.com.au/business/bill-gates-and-china-partner-on-
worldfirst-nuclear-technology-20171106-gzfrf0.html)

~~~
yazr
TeraPower is a clever attempt at a fast reactor using uranium/plutonium fuel.
We have had various fast reactors (commercial and research) since the 70s.
IIRC they tend to be very twitchy, and have proliferation issues.

Thorium reactors, a.k.a LFTR, a.k.a. "hope-ium" are still very much on the
drawing board. They have some nice properties (stability, safer, liquid
based).

p.s. I am pro renewable. Nuclear will comeback around 2050 when we run out of
space...

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Can anybody provide any real-world examples of _proliferation issues_ from
nuclear material?

~~~
femto
Australia's export of uranium to India.

India has made an explicit decision not to sign the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty (NPT). As a member of the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Australia is
supposed to export only to countries that have signed the NPT. An exemption
has been granted to India. This means India is receiving uranium from
Australia, but its facilities are not subject to the full range of inspections
required under the NPT. It's reasonable to assume that India will go as far as
it can in its role as a non-signatory to the NPT.

Essentially India said "trust us", and Australia said "show us the money."

~~~
beefman
India has been a nuclear power since 1974.

~~~
femto
I guess you're right under the definition of proliferation being a new nation
gaining nuclear weapons. I was thinking of proliferation, in the sense of
their being more nuclear weapons, even if it doesn't involve a new nation.

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downrightmike
These reactors do refine uranium 232. So still making something that is really
dangerous.
[https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium.html](https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium.html)

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ulkhf
Given the vast quantities of existing depleted uranium and spent nuclear fuel
I feel the molten chloride fast breeder reactor should come first.

~~~
soperj
Can't you just use a Candu reactor for that now?

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solarkraft
Ah, Thorium.

