China has succeeded in converting thorium into uranium

The South China Morning Post, citing state-run Chinese media, Reported that an experimental reactor developed in the Gobi Desert by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has succeeded in converting thorium fuel into uranium, paving the way for a nearly endless supply of nuclear energy.

It is the first time in the world that scientists have been able to obtain experimental data on thorium operations from inside a salt reactor, according to a report in Science and Technology Daily. Thorium is much more abundant and accessible than uranium and has enormous energy potential. A mine in Inner Mongolia is estimated to contain enough of the element to fully power China for more than 1.000 years.

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At the heart of the discovery is a process known as thorium-to-uranium conversion within the core, which converts naturally occurring thorium-232 into uranium-233 – a fissile isotope capable of sustaining nuclear chain reactions within the reactor itself.

Thorium (Th-232) is not fissile and therefore cannot be used directly in a thermal neutron reactor.

Therefore, thorium fuels need a fissile material as an “engine” so that a chain reaction and therefore the supply of excess neutrons can be maintained.

The only fissile engine options are U-233, U-235, or Pu-239, and none of them are easy to obtain.

In the 1960s, Oak Ridge National Laboratory (USA) designed and built a demonstration MSR using U-233, which was externally sourced from thorium as the main fission engine.

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