More than half a century after physicist Alvin Weinberg first demonstrated a thorium molten-salt reactor at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a global thorium renaissance may be underway. At least that’s what the Thorium Energy Alliance (TEA) hopes. TEA’s eleventh conference, held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, brought together engineers, entrepreneurs, and enthusiasts who believe thorium reactors…

Thorium energy experts at the Thorium Energy Alliance Conference told The Epoch Times what they believe has limited the use of the mildly radioactive element, long touted as a potential alternative or complement to plutonium and enriched uranium in nuclear reactors. Unlike uranium-235, the isotope in enriched uranium that sustains a nuclear chain reaction, thorium…

In China’s remote northwest Gansu province, Chinese scientists successfully designed, and built, an experimental thorium-powered molten salt reactor—and they’re about to power it up. Initially, 2024 was the projected completion date for the prototype; but a healthy research and design budget, plus a push from Beijing, thrust completion of the reactor ahead of schedule. The…