China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
thoriumenergyworld.com
China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
1–10 of 29 posts
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#2Wasn’t Bill Gates a strong proponent for (and even investor in?) thorium reactors? Did that pan out?
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#3Is there a better source for this than "Thorium Energy World"?
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#4These reactors do refine uranium 232. So still making something that is really dangerous. https://whatisnuclear.com/thorium.html
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#5Wasn’t Bill Gates a strong proponent for (and even investor in?) thorium reactors? Did that pan out?
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/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...
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#6Is there a better source for this than "Thorium Energy World"?
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".
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#7Given the vast quantities of existing depleted uranium and spent nuclear fuel I feel the molten chloride fast breeder reactor should come first.
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#8Ah, Thorium.
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#9Wasn’t Bill Gates a strong proponent for (and even investor in?) thorium reactors? Did that pan out?
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/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…
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...
Re: China Invests Big in Clean and Cheap Energy from Thorium
#10AFAICT 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....
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.