China Will Build First Practical Nuclear Reactor Using Rare Earth Waste!

Written by Roberta Souza

Published on 04/01/2025 at 12:35

Foto/reprodução: Divulgação

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Start of Thorium Reactor Construction in 2024: A Historic Milestone for Sustainable Nuclear Energy in China!

The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP), of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, will begin construction of a thorium molten salt nuclear reactor with a capacity of 10 MW in 2024.

This project is a significant milestone, as the pilot reactor began operations in 2021.

With the success of the pilot project, China is preparing to establish a network of thorium reactors.

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Advantages of Thorium and Rare Earth Waste

Thorium is not only a sustainable alternative, but it is also available in large quantities in the waste from mining rare earth metals.

China is a leader in processing these minerals and has accumulated a significant amount of waste for use. This approach promotes sustainability and helps resolve the problem of industrial waste.

Challenges in Thorium Conversion

One of the challenges of using thorium is that it does not undergo nuclear fission directly. For this to occur, thorium-232 must be converted into a suitable isotope of uranium.

During this process, thorium-232 is placed in a molten salt reactor, transforming into thorium-233. This isotope has a half-life of about 20 minutes, decaying into protactinium-233, which converts into uranium-233.

Future Projects and Capacity Expansion

The pilot project was implemented in the Gobi Desert, where a 2 MW molten salt reactor was built.

SINAP assessed the project as promising and plans to construct a 60 MW reactor by 2025, with an electrical power of 10 MW.

china - energia - reator nuclear - terras raras - — Start of Thorium Reactor Construction in 2024: A Historic Milestone for Sustainable Nuclear Energy in China – Photo/reproduction: Release

If the project is successful, China could increase capacity to up to 100 MW by 2030.

The Revival of Thorium Reactors

Before the China initiative, the only existing thorium reactor was at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, in the USA, which was shut down in 1969.

Interest in molten salt reactors has resurfaced not only in China, but in various nations. Countries like United States, Japan, India and members of the European Union are considering these reactors as a safer alternative to traditional nuclear power plants.

Challenges and Concerns

While new technologies are being developed, there are concerns about handling radioactive fuel, which may need to remain out of the reactor for some time.

This raises questions about material safety and control. Some proposals aim to ensure that protactinium stays in the reactor, directly forming uranium in the core.

China at the Forefront of Nuclear Energy

China has stated that the construction of thorium reactors is a viable path and intends to maintain its leadership position in this sector.

While other countries are still in the planning stage, China is confidently moving forward, establishing itself as a model to follow.

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China Will Build First Practical Nuclear Reactor Using Rare Earth Waste!

Start of Thorium Reactor Construction in 2024: A Historic Milestone for Sustainable Nuclear Energy in China!

Advantages of Thorium and Rare Earth Waste

Challenges in Thorium Conversion

Future Projects and Capacity Expansion

The Revival of Thorium Reactors

Challenges and Concerns

China at the Forefront of Nuclear Energy

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China Will Build First Practical Nuclear Reactor Using Rare Earth Waste!

Start of Thorium Reactor Construction in 2024: A Historic Milestone for Sustainable Nuclear Energy in China!

Advantages of Thorium and Rare Earth Waste

Challenges in Thorium Conversion

Future Projects and Capacity Expansion

The Revival of Thorium Reactors

Challenges and Concerns

China at the Forefront of Nuclear Energy

In the cold desert of Ladakh, where it hardly rains, engineer Sonam Wangchuk created the ice stupa, a tower that freezes winter water and stores it for irrigating crops in the spring, a simple engineering feat that mimics nature.

Libya built over 4,000 kilometers of underground pipelines to bring water from the Sahara to coastal cities in a project that the government itself called the Eighth Wonder of the World.

Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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