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.

Comments

Movie Review: Superman (2025) No Spoilers

T he one thing I like about James Gunn as a comic book movie director is that he leans into the comic book nature of the world and the characters. He's not trying to do a realistic take on any of the characters. He's simply bringing the comics to life. It's still his take on the characters, but he doesn't shy away from their comic book origins. James Gunn's Superman is very much a comic book movie in every sense. Nothing is off the table because it's too 'comic-booky' and might look silly in a live action film. To me that's incredibly liberating. It lets James actually tell a proper Superman story that isn't hamstrung by reality, or tip toeing into the fantastical just enough to allow Superman to exist in the real world. Superman begins in the middle of a battle. Metropolis is under attack by a super powered being known as 'Hammer of Boravia', however everything is not as it seems, and Superman (David Corenswet) must work with other s...

James Gunn's Social Media Monkeys Joke Was a Highlight of His Superman Movie For Me

B efore James Gunn's Superman Movie was released there was a whole rumor going around that the movie would feature monkeys on computers trolling Superman's social media, sparking much outrage. #supersh*t. I didn't know this was even a thing until just prior to writing this article. I did a search to see if anyone had posted a clip of the monkeys scene from the movie and got pages of discourse featuring videos and articles prior to the film. Most of it from Gunn detractors (let's say) seeing it as some kind of childish swipe at them... well not them specifically but, you know, those other people who have every right to hate on anything sight unseen. Anyway, I'm not going to give even one such example a link or air because it's kind of sad watching someone devote so much commentary to a throw away gag that is absolutely a nod to James Gunn's Superman trolls. The whole reason this post exists, is to say I loved the joke, because fourteen years ago, and I...

I'm Confused About Why People Prefer to Say Discombobulated?

D iscombobulated. Is a word that I think someone rediscovered about three or four years ago (maybe more because the pandemic years have thrown out my sense of time) and now I hear it a lot. It's not a new word by any means, but when I started hearing multiple celebrities using it in everyday sentences, I actively had to look up what it meant. Define it with as many synonyms as you like but essentially it's just another word meaning 'confused'. Seinfeld Quotes: Quotes.net The words are pretty much interchangeable. He was discombobulated by too many choices. He was confused by too many choices. My confusion is the length of the word. It's unnecessarily long with too many syllables. There are many other words that mean confused, and therefore also mean discombobulated. Most of them are shorter and easier to say. So why not just say 'confused'? Perhaps discombobulated sounds more intelligent, maybe? Hawaii Five-0 Quotes: Quotes.net I've noticed it gets us...

Movie Review: A Complete Unknown (2024) No Spoilers

Y ou would think the Bob Dylan story would be 'wind-swept and interesting,' to quote Billy Connelly, however, despite A Complete Unknown being quite an engaging film, it feels like it missed the years that really shaped him as a song writer/performer. The film starts in 1961, with a then unknown, 19-year-old Bob Dylan (Timothée Chalamet) arriving in New York City with his guitar. From there he forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world. The problem being, according to this film, Dylan arrived in New York, for the most part, fully formed as a folk singer/song writer. In virtually no time he makes a very important connection that puts him on the trajectory of doing the work and becoming a name, before making his world changing performance. While there is some drama behind the scenes with his various relationships, none of it is particularly unique to any number of up and com...

I'm Joining the Illuminati Brotherhood By Personal Invitation of Hiltom Rothschild... Wait, What?

How special am I to have finally come of age (53 years young) and am now eligible to participate in building the world alongside other members of the Illuminati Brotherhood... Yes I've received the call by way of an email, which I'm sure is real because I had to translate it from the Dutch language and it was personally written by Hiltom Rothschild, one of the non-existent members of the Rothschild family (or perhaps deep undercover because Google has never heard of them?). A Transcript of the email below: To: etourist From: Illuminati Brotherhood Subject: Illuminati Broederschap (Illuminati Brotherhood) I am Hiltom Rothschild, a member of the Rothschild family, one of the 13 families of the Illuminati brotherhood. I'm here to let you know that you've come of age and are eligible to participate in building the 🌎 world. It is a calling and a privilege to honor him with pride and gratitude as not everyone will ever be chosen by the LIGHT, many are called but few are ch...

Australian Federal Election 2025 - World's Most Boring Government Re-elected by Landside - We're Even More Fine!

Anthony Albanese Victory by ChatGPT and TET. W hen I started writing about the 2025 Federal election the polls were suggesting the world's most boring government was crusing to a defeat . As it turns out, boring is good, and Australia wants more of it, handing the current government a landslide win with a majority vote. Anthony Albanese became the first PM since John Howard to win a consecutive term, and the first Labor PM since Bob Hawke to do so. Some of that comes down to the leadership revolving door both major parties had through the mid 2000s. Although Anthony is my preferred PM over Dutton the irony is Dutton sounds more like a leader with a fairly commanding voice and an ability to speak well, without sounding like he's waffling and dodging questions, even if he is. Anthony, on the other hand, does have the ability (and speech writer) to say a lot of inspiring things but it gets lost in the delivery. He doesn't seem to know when to emphasise a point for effect. In h...

Second Sunday Skateboard Session Episode 9, and 10 - Shuv-it Revelation and Did I Improve?

T he final two episodes of my ten part YouTube series documenting my process of learning the first seven basic skateboard tricks from Braille Skateboarding's, Skateboarding Made Simple. These are the links to Episode One , Episode Two , Three to Five , and Six to Eight , should you feel the need to see where I started or you want a bit more background on my personal skateboarding journey that began in 1988. I won't ramble on in this final introduction to my last two sessions, other that to say, episode ten is the highlight in terms of getting a direct comparison from episode 1 with side by side footage. Episode 9 - Frontside Pop Shuv-it Revelation The only episode not filmed on the second Sunday, thankfully due to the weather raining Sunday out and not my lack of willingness to continue. Monday was also very rainy but I managed to fit my session in during a small window of no rain late in the day. It was a little bit of a difficult session in that I could only uti...

TET.Life (The Extraordinary Tourist Life)

Search This Blog