China’s Experimental Thorium Reactor Is Ready for Testing
1st December 2021
China has finished construction on an experimental thorium reactor that could greatly expand the number of people who can benefit from clean nuclear energy.
Fission basics: Nuclear power plants split atoms of fuel through a process called “fission.” This produces energy that can then be converted into electricity.
Nuclear power is more reliable than wind and solar, and the fission process doesn’t produce any climate-harming carbon emissions, making nuclear energy a potentially key weapon in the battle against climate change.
The challenge: Today, there are more than 400 nuclear power plants in operation across the globe, and the vast majority use uranium as a fuel and water to cool and moderate the fission process — but there are downsides to the status quo.
While uranium is about as common as tin, less than 1% of mined uranium is a specific kind that can undergo fission (uranium-235) — a process called “enrichment” is needed to increase uranium-235 levels in the mined metal, and it’s both complicated and expensive.??