Nuclear energy is one of the most abundant and reliable sources of electricity people have ever come up with. When it was first being widely developed, new power plants were built in countries around the world, and many of them continue to operate today. Unfortunately, due to a few isolated disasters, people’s opinion of this form of energy were severely soured to the point that many countries stopped building them entirely.

Another problem with nuclear power is that using uranium as the fuel for these plants makes it possible to weaponize the uranium, which is obviously very dangerous. There are other elements that can be used to make nuclear energy, most notable of which is Thorium. In fact, Thorium was one of the preferred options in the early development of this energy, but that changed once the United States and other countries realized that if uranium was used, it could also serve military purposes.

Today, the energy demands of the world are higher than ever, but countries like the United States aren’t building new nuclear power plants because of the worry about meltdowns and other issues. Other countries can’t build the plants due to restrictions on the use of uranium.

China, however, has recently built and powered up a test reactor in the Gobi Desert that has achieved full power operations. What makes this reactor particularly notable is that they are using Thorium.

How they learned to do this is interesting, and will hopefully be taken as a lesson to America. In the 1940’s and 50’s, America performed significant research into Thorium based nuclear reactors, even going as far as to develop nuclear-powered stealth bombers. The government-sponsored research was made public because nobody at the time was pursuing Thorium nuclear reactors due to the fact that uranium powered plants were the standard.

The chief scientist on the project in China, Xu Hongjie said:

“The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That’s when the tortoise seizes its chance.”

To put it simply, China took the research on Thorium reactors and put it into practice, and now they have a power plant that can generate two megawatts of power, and this is likely just the beginning. With this design now proven, they will likely want to scale it up significantly, using this safe and clean energy production method to meet their massive electrical demands.

The big question is will America and the rest of the world keep up? Thorium reactors have been a great option for decades precisely because the Thorium cannot be enriched to the point where it can be weaponized. In addition, the design used in this Chinese facility uses molten salt to carry the fuel and as a coolant. Since the salt is already molten, there is no risk of a meltdown at all (it is already in a melted state).

Also, unlike uranium that can cause a massive explosion when things go wrong, Thorium is actually much safer. In the event of a problem where the Thorium itself breaks out of its containment, it is simply exposed to air and cooled so that it solidifies into a safe substance that can be easily cleaned up.

China has made it clear that they are looking to be the world leaders when it comes to clean, safe, reliable, Thorium based nuclear power plants. Will America follow or be left behind using outdated, dangerous, and dirty energy production methods?

Thorium nuclear reactors are the way of the future.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.