For some 15 years, I have followed the re-emergence of nuclear Thorium or ‘the green nuclear’ as it is often referred to.
Way back, an experimental Thorium Molten Salt Reactor was built at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. It critically operated for roughly 15,000 hours from 1965 to 1969. In 1968, it was announced that the Thorium-based reactor had been both successfully developed and tested.
President Nixon defunded Thorium research in the early 1970s. You can’t make bombs out of it, so why bother?!
Up until recently, America would not license a Thorium reactor for construction. However, when China burst ahead with establishing a Thorium reactor a few years ago, America changed tack and is now licensing nuclear Thorium. Abilene Christian University, MIT, and Georgia Tech have all obtained licences for research.
The Wuwei reactor in the Gobi desert, located in the Gansu province, is a two-megawatt liquid-fuelled Thorium molten salt reactor (MSR), operated by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The permit was issued by the National Nuclear Safety Administration. It allows the Shanghai Institute to operate the reactor for 10 years and it will start by testing the facility’s operations. This Chinese prototype probably helped America change its mind on Thorium. Even Canada has got a research reactor up and going.
Beware though… Thorium nuclear is not a loved bedfellow of the Uranium nuclear industry. It is a bit like Rolls Royce vs a mini-minor. The Uranium nuclear lobby will often disregard Thorium, in my experience.
However, Thorium was mentioned in Ziggy Switkowski’s 2006 Nuclear report to government, but only in passing.
A lot has changed since then.
Alan Finkel’s energy report did not mention Thorium at all and instead had a gas focus. (How things have changed since then on gas, although he did recommend that we do not go headlong in decommissioning all coal power stations too soon.) As far as I know, the CSIRO and the Grattan Institute have not mentioned Thorium in the energy mix. Even the Department of the Environment may not be across Thorium. A few years ago I queried their views on Thorium and they admitted that they had never heard of a Thorium reactor.
Germany has commissioned two companies to develop and commercialise modular Thorium reactors by 2030. Naarea and Thorizon are the two companies involved in this project. Also, the Copenhagen Atomics group are at the forefront of promoting Thorium nuclear. They are well worth looking at.
A Thorium reactor can also be used to decontaminate its own nuclear waste. And best of all, Thorium reactors do not melt down, ever! Have our politicians only spoken to the Uranium lobby?
