Chinese molten-salt reactor cleared for start up
In January 2011, CAS launched a CNY3 billion (USD444 million) R&D programme on liquid fluoride thorium reactors (LFTRs), known there as the thorium-breeding molten-salt reactor (Th-MSR or TMSR), and claimed to have the world's largest national effort on it, hoping to obtain full intellectual property rights on the technology. This is also known as the fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactor (FHR). The TMSR Centre at SINAP at Jiading, Shanghai, is responsible.
Construction of the 2 MWt TMSR-LF1 reactor began in September 2018 and was reportedly completed in August 2021. The prototype was scheduled to be completed in 2024, but work was accelerated.
"According to the relevant provisions of the Nuclear Safety Law of the People's Republic of China and the Regulations of the People's Republic of China on the Safety Supervision and Administration of Civilian Nuclear Facilities, our bureau has conducted a technical review of the application documents you submitted, and believes that your 2 MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor commissioning plan (Version V1.3) is acceptable and is hereby approved," the Ministry of Ecology and Environment told SINAP on 2 August.
It added: "During the commissioning process of your 2 MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor, you should strictly implement this plan to ensure the effectiveness of the implementation of the plan and ensure the safety and quality of debugging. If any major abnormality occurs during the commissioning process, it should be reported to our bureau and the Northwest Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision Station in time."
(Score: 4, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Friday September 02 2022, @08:09PM (4 children)
China... IP rights HA! very funny... They can move to Hollywood.. I'm sure we can just claim prior art, or just get it on bittorrent
(Score: 4, Interesting) by corey on Friday September 02 2022, @11:54PM (3 children)
I went to add a comment literally about that sentence. You captured the gist, I think it’s high time the west reversed the tables on this one after all the copying and emulating of the past 20 years.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @05:07AM (1 child)
20?? Try 70+!
(Score: 2) by gawdonblue on Saturday September 03 2022, @07:16AM
70? Try 700 [wikipedia.org]!
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 03 2022, @02:53PM
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Immerman on Friday September 02 2022, @10:24PM
It's good to see some real money being put into MSRs. They have enormous potential, and I'm really looking forward to commercial-scale reactors becoming commonplace.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by Some call me Tim on Saturday September 03 2022, @02:13AM (1 child)
I live near the Nuclear Reactor plant at Diablo Canyon. It has been proven to be very safe but the powers that be want it shut down because Gaaaah! Nuclear!
Those same folks have told us not to charge our EV's because we don't have enough electricity. Make up your minds greenies. If we don't have the power to charge EV's now, how the hell are we supposed to charge them in 2035?
Questioning science is how you do science!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by epitaxial on Saturday September 03 2022, @09:33PM
If you had read the article about not charging EVs, you'd know they asked you to not do it at peak usage times.