Fuel transitions from "uranium" to "thorium", and China achieves a breakthrough in the research and development of thorium-based molten salt reactors.

According to Xinhua News Agency, it was learned from the Chinese Academy of Sciences on November 1st that the 2MW liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor, led by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has recently achieved the thorium-uranium nuclear fuel conversion for the first time. It is the first time in the world to obtain experimental data after thorium is put into operation in a molten salt reactor, becoming the only molten salt reactor in the world currently operating and achieving thorium fuel insertion. This preliminary proves the technical feasibility of utilizing thorium resources in the nuclear energy system of molten salt reactors.