China leads research on new type of technology for producing renewable, clean and low-cost energy

China is leading studies around the world on a new type of renewable, clean, low-cost and almost endless energy production using thorium. The reactor that China is about to test is small, but it is of enormous importance for the country's and the world's energy future.

Oil, gas and coal seriously pollute the planet, but China's influential businessmen and governments have vowed to resist any change. China has a real problem – severe pollution in its major cities caused by the burning of fossil fuels in transport, homes and the use of nuclear power in its major industries. As reported by the report to scientists at Portal Island.Lk, Chinese researchers have taken action and invested heavily in modern, up-to-date designs for using Molten Salt Thorium (thorium) to produce heat and generate clean, low-cost, renewable energy.  

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Early studies involving the use of thorium

The Americans performed a Thorium experiment at Oakridge National Laboratory, Tennessee, and successfully ran a non-stop heat-producing plant for five years in the 1960s, providing proof of principle.   

It was a watershed. However, the researchers found some serious problems, such as corrosion of the reactor vessel walls by the used fluorine salts and corrosion of the materials from which the reactor control valves were made. 

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They also had the problem of not being able to measure the high operating temperatures around 500oC. But now, with advances in metallurgy and instrumentation, these are no longer obstacles. This method of generating heat can work successfully and promises to become very cheap — thorium is four times more abundant on Earth than uranium.

Nuclear fission reactor – clean energy generated from thorium is a game changer

In a molten salt nuclear reactor, fissile material is dissolved in heated (= liquid) fluoride salt in the reactor core. This liquid salt acts as a coolant in place of water, but works at atmospheric pressure. Fission takes place in the reactor core, generating heat.   

The hot 'coolant' is passed through a heat exchanger with water, producing steam. This steam drives a turbine that generates electricity. With thorium, there are no high pressure steam chambers to explode and escapes are impossible because thorium reactors have safety features and, if overheated, the fusible drain plugs melt and drain the hot fluid into the thorium dump tanks. emergency, below.  

The Shanghai Institute of Applied Sciences, overseen by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been active. In 2011, they employed around 700 PhD researchers to investigate and design new Thorium reactors based on the Oakridge reactor design, and in 2017, they built their first 2 MW experimental prototype in the Gobi Desert in Wuwai, Gansu Province, for operational and material testing.   

Because of the success they've had with these prototypes, they now plan a 10 MW plant to enter service in 2025 and a 100 megawatt plant to start operating by 2035. China hopes to become carbon neutral by 2060.

Renewable, clean and low-cost energy

Thorium is abundant and relatively cheap, but it does not contain enough fission material to sustain large chain reactions. Therefore, it is necessary to mix the element with plutonium oxide, which makes the entire process more powerful — the alloy is being called Thorium-MOX. Furthermore, it is an efficient way to recycle plutonium, which would be left unused after enrichment. What is being tested in China is a method that, while not new, has never been tested on such a large scale.  

They're using molten fluoride salt combined with thorium, a chemical found in minerals that is "four times" more abundant on the planet than uranium, says Forsberg. In a reactor, the two elements combine to produce a physical reaction (fission) that generates more heat than the traditional method, which uses uranium-235/238 combined with plutonium.  

“Molten salt reactors provide heat at higher temperatures than other reactors, between 600°C and 700°C. Heat at higher temperatures is more valuable,” says Forsberg.