Uranium — everything? China is the first in the world to launch a thorium nuclear reactor with refueling without shutdown

China has successfully tested the world’s first industrial thorium nuclear reactor on molten salts.

The 2 MW facility in the Gobi Desert has been in operation since June 2024. Chinese engineers have already demonstrated the possibility of reloading fuel into it without the need to shut down the reactor. Thorium as a nuclear fuel represents a serious alternative to uranium, as it can provide cleaner and safer energy with minimal waste and without the potential risk of nuclear weapons.

According to the World Nuclear Association, thorium reserves are three times higher than proven uranium reserves, and the process of producing and proliferating nuclear weapons through a thorium reactor is too complex to pose the corresponding risks. The reactor in the Gobi Desert is powered by thorium fluoride, which is dissolved in molten fluoride salts.

Since these salts also perform the function of heat transfer, transferring heat and cooling the reactor, the risk of core meltdown disappears. Even in the event of a leak or a large-scale accident, the molten fuel will cool, solidify and will prevent the large-scale spread of radiation.

Theoretically, a thorium reactor is a safer and more stable system capable of operating at atmospheric pressure. This allows for thinner pipes, less dense containment structures, and no risk of catastrophic failure.

Thorium has been researched since the 20s of the last century. The United States studied the design of a molten salt reactor in the 1940s and 1950s, but later abandoned it in favor of using uranium. According to the project manager Xu Hongjie, Chinese scientists carefully studied the descriptions of thorium experiments conducted in the United States.

China has well-known deposits, including a thorium-rich mine in Inner Mongolia that scientists say could theoretically provide the country with energy for tens of thousands of years. The reactor also avoids one of the biggest headaches nuclear energy — waste.

Currently, Chinese scientists are already working on a similar 10 MW thorium reactor, which should be fully operational by 2030. In addition to China, the prospects for using thorium reactors are currently being studied in India, Norway, and the United States.

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