China authorizes the start of a thorium reactor. A technology that was once exploited in France
The Chinese authorities have just authorized the commissioning of an experimental prototype of a thorium nuclear reactor with molten salt cooling . This type of reactor belongs to the category of so-called breeder reactors, which are safer, capable of producing more fuel than they consume and producing less waste than conventional fission reactors. They represent the medium and long-term future of nuclear energy, at least as far as fission is concerned.
France has been at the forefront of another fast breeder technology, fast neutron reactors, with Phénix and SuperPhénix and the Astrid research program. These reactors and programs were shut down for political reasons by Lionel Jospin at the end of the last century and by Emmanuel Macron in 2019. Now they are left behind.
The molten salt thorium nuclear reactor (which acts as a coolant and containment barrier) is the subject of engineering fantasies, as is the fast neutron reactor. These two technologies, different from those used in almost all existing reactors today, can provide complete control of the fuel cycle, especially with fast breeder reactors. This makes it possible to produce in the reactor a quantity of fuel greater than that actually used and to produce little highly radioactive waste. But the thorium reactor, currently being developed mainly by China, is not a miracle solution. To be developed on an industrial rather than an experimental scale, it will still require many years of research and investment.
Many advantages, but still serious technical obstacles
The thorium molten salt nuclear reactor theoretically offers the best of all worlds. It offers the power and abundance of nuclear electricity without having a military dimension, offering greater safety, without consuming water to cool it and without having to deal with large quantities of radioactive waste resulting from the fission of uranium or plutonium atoms.
Thorium is abundant. And it doesn't require a lengthy enrichment process to be used in a reactor. This technology began to be studied in the late forties. It has been neglected due to lack of funds, although several experiments were carried out in the 1960s and 1970s, and also in recent years, in the United States, Russia, Asia and Europe. An evaluation project was started in the Netherlands in 2017, but progressing very slowly.
But it is China that is the most advanced, demonstrating, if need be, its ambition to dominate the world's civilian nuclear industry. The Chinese authorities have just authorized the commissioning of an experimental prototype of a thorium nuclear reactor. Construction of the prototype, dubbed TMSR-LF1, started in 2018 in the desert near the city of Wuwei in the northwestern province of Gansu. It will simply be the first thorium reactor to operate in the world. The construction of a larger commercial reactor is planned at the same site. The power of this reactor is currently only 2 MW, therefore little more than symbolic.
So Europe has given up on a technology, and China has decided to carry it forward….
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The article China authorizes the start of a thorium reactor. A technology that was once exploited in France comes from Scenari Economics .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-cina-autorizza-la-partenza-di-un-reattore-al-torio-una-tecnologia-che-un-tempo-era-sfruttata-in-francia/ on Fri, 23 Jun 2023 12:42:38 +0000.