China is Leading on Thorium Nuclear Energy, A Source That is More Efficient, More Available, and Produces Less Nuclear Waste Than Uranium

Early thorium-based (MSR) nuclear reactor at
Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the 1960s
By ORNL
"Image courtesy of Oak Ridge National Laboratory"

If there was an energy source more efficient, safer, more available, and produces less nuclear waste with a significantly less decay time before it becomes safe again, you'd think countries would be climbing over themselves to jump on board.

Thorium is that source, and it was extensively researched by the USA in the 1960's, ultimately losing out to Uranium because Uranium was cheaper and served a duel role in the nuclear arms race of the time.

That leads us to today, where Uranium Nuclear reactors are an entire industry, with strong foot holds in many countries around the globe, and Thorium is still stuck in development hell. Even if the Nuclear industry did decide to pivot, it would be decades before Thorium would actually deliver on the benefits of using it. It's not as simple as swapping fuel in existing reactors. Thorium reactors are a whole different process.

I'm not going to go into the detail of how Thorium is used to create energy. If you would like to know watch Youtube channel, Cold Fusion's video, Thorium - The Future of Energy?

The key points you need to know are:

• Thorium is found everywhere (even on the moon) and is 3x more abundant than Uranium. For example China has enough Thorium to power their country for the next 20,000 years.
  
  
• Thorium is a waste product from rare earth mining so there is no need to make new mines just for Thorium. China is currently the world leader in rare earth mining but other countries, including the USA, and Australia are developing their own industries.
  
  
• Thorium reactors generate up to 200 times more energy than Uranium reactors and aren't prone to explosions or meltdowns due to their molten salt, liquid process that doesn't require high pressure systems.
  
  
• Thorium Nuclear waste becomes safe within 300 years. Still not ideal but a far cry from the tens of thousands of years Uranium waste needs to be stored.
  
  
• Thorium's waste product is not really suitable for nuclear bombs as it's more difficult to be processed into Plutonium (through the recycling of nuclear waste, and one of the reasons almost no country recycles their nuclear waste - watch, Nuclear waste is reusable. Why aren’t we doing it?, by Youtube channel DW Planet A).

The biggest problem is that Thorium energy is expensive to produce at scale, and requires entirely new Thorium reactors to be built.

Fortunately China is taking a lead on Thorium claiming that they used abandoned USA research from the 1960's to help resolve other hurdles Thorium faced before it could become a viable energy source.

Watch Cold Fusion's video, How China Won the Thorium Nuclear Energy Race, embed below to learn more about Thorium Energy and China's goals for the future.

China began working on their Thorium Energy program in 2009 studying closely all of the US's research. In June 2024 their first reactor became active. China proved that you can add more fuel to a Thorium reactor while it's still running (a key issue for Thorium's viability).

If the world is to turn to nuclear power, Thorium is definitely more palatable from my point of view, since my issue has always been with the insanely ridiculous storage time needed for nuclear waste to become safe again (though I'm not keen on reactor meltdowns either).  

The fact that China is leading the way could inspire a Thorium race simply so China doesn't leave other countries behind.

As mentioned one of the key issues is scaling up Thorium reactors to power entire cities. Building a reactor isn't exactly a quick process. It is in fact a key reason why current nuclear power won't solve Australia's Energy crisis in the short term. We don't have any nuclear reactors and would need to start building them to see just 4% of our power grid fed by nuclear in the next decade (approximately - I'm paraphrasing numbers I heard during our recent election campaigns, don't take that as hard fact).

Apparently Denmark is developing its own Thorium Nuclear Power industry with a project to build modular Thorium reactors that can be installed, relatively quickly at scale, helping to overcome the issue of time to some degree. Youtube channel, Engineering with Rosie, got to take a tour of this project posting the video, Can Copenhagen Atomics Make Thorium Reactors Work? An Exclusive Tour to Find Out.

All of this looks pretty hopeful, if something of a long term solution to the planet's energy needs. To be honest, while I'm a big supporter of renewable energy, wind and solar farms are visual pollution to a degree.

It's kind of disappointing to get out into the countryside only to be confronted by hilltops with giant white wind turbines dotted all over them. It would be nicer to have a more compact solution like a Thorium reactor, ideally reactors that have a 100% recyclable waste product, but I'll take 300 years over tens of thousands.