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https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-08-28/china-thorium-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor-energy/100351932
Scientists in China are about to turn on for the first time an experimental reactor that's believed by some to be the Holy Grail of nuclear energy — safer, cheaper and with less potential for weaponisation.
Construction on the thorium-based molten salt reactor was expected to be finished this month with the first tests to begin as early as September, according to a statement from the Gansu provincial government.
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China Set to Begin First Trials of Thorium Molten Salt Nuclear Reactor
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(Score: 5, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Sunday August 29 2021, @06:42AM
Your right, the U-233 is what actually gets split in a Thorium reactor, meaning there isn't much of it at any one time and what there is gets used in situ. It can also be easily removed from the fuel chain when the reactor is decommissioned and used elsewhere as a fuel in a new reactor.
The actual waste products from a Thorium fuel chain are only dangerous for a few hundred years, while a Uranium fuel chain is in the order of thousands. Also, in the case of the Thorium fuel chain that waste can be "burned up" in properly designed reactor into shorter lived isotopes reducing the storage time even more.
Even Fusion reactors will produce radioactive waste. The neutrons generated irradiate the containment vessel and the parts near it. When those parts are replaced or the plant is decommissioned it will be a very large and radioactive mass that will need to be stored for about as long as the waste products from Thorium and Uranium reactors.
If we are to cut green house gases we need to use every thing we can. MSRs may not be perfect but they are far far cleaner and better than coal and other fossil fueled power plants and we have the tech to build them today, when we need them.
Fusion may be better but it is still decades away from being a viable energy source. Thorium MSRs are here now, and they are safer and cleaner than the current generations of Uranium solid fuel LWTR reactors like Fukushima.and Chernobyl
Some facts you might not be aware of [youtube.com]
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