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China has world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor thanks to ‘strategic stamina’ (www.scmp.com)

submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

246 comments fedilink hide all child comments

https://archive.is/2nQSh

It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, putting China at the forefront of a global race to harness thorium – considered a safer and more abundant alternative to uranium – for nuclear power.

The experimental reactor, located in the Gobi Desert in China’s west, uses molten salt as the fuel carrier and coolant, and thorium – a radioactive element abundant in the Earth’s crust – as the fuel source. The reactor is reportedly designed to sustainably generate 2 megawatts of thermal power.

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[–] [email protected] -3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

“Strategic Stamina,” Is that what they’re calling the 996 now?

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 days ago

Good news, mankind should be pushing farther into this technologies.... so we finally have our first gen IV reactor? I honestly thought we would never reach them on time.

Plus Thorium rocks

[–] [email protected] 8 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Uh, what about the THTR-300 that operated at 300MW capacity from 1987 to 1989?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/THTR-300

It was a total failure, though. Not quite Chernobyl, but it was plagued by incidents.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (1 children)

Honestly, I'm not a nuclear physicist by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm not sure how they plan to emergency cool the reactor to prevent a meltdown if it's filled with molten salt. Anything colder than molten salt going into the reactor would cause it to be clogged up by not-molten salt.

At least the THTR seemed to have cooling capabilities as the foremost priority.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (6 children)

They put a plug in the bottom that melts if the salt gets too hot and it drains out into a tank that stops the reaction with no moving parts or anyone controlling it. After it cools down they can remelt it and put it back in.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

Technology

[–] [email protected] 51 points 4 days ago (9 children)

Me opening the comment section knowing that its just gonna be a bunch of racism... like i get it i hate the chinese government as well but give credit to the millions of scientists and people who are actually trying to make life better on this earth. If something isnt american, it can still be nice to have.

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