China plans to build the world’s first experimental thorium nuclear reactor that does not require water to cool. Such a reactor can be called “clean”.
The reactor will run on liquid thorium, and molten salts will be used for cooling. This setup will have a whole host of advantages. Firstly, the reactor does not require a huge amount of water, that is, it can operate in desert regions. Second, thorium is much cheaper than uranium, and its decay does not produce elements that can be used to create nuclear weapons. Third, the waste from such a reactor has a half-life of 500 years, versus 10,000 years in the case of a uranium reactor.
In addition, in the event of an unforeseen situation, the cooling salt quickly solidifies, effectively sealing the radioactive thorium.
A prototype reactor with a capacity of 2 MW will be ready in August, and the first tests will start in September. A full-scale 100 MW reactor will not be ready until 2030. It is planned to be built in the city of Wuwei.
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