China to activate the world's first 'clean' commercial nuclear reactor

• Chinese government scientists have unveiled plans for a first-of-its-kind, experimental nuclear reactor that does not need water for cooling.
• This will allow the facilities to be built in remote desert regions to provide power for more densely populated areas.
• The design includes a molten salt reactor, which is powered by liquid thorium rather than uranium, making it safer in the event of a leak.

Key points:

• The molten thorium would cool and solidify quickly, dispersing less radiation into the environment.
• Construction of the first commercial reactor should be completed by 2030 and China plans to build several in the deserts and plains of central and western China.
• The concept of a reactor powered by liquid salt rather than solid fuel first appeared in the 1940s, and in the 1950s
• the USA started an experimental programme and in the 1960s built a facility to test the technology’s capacity to generate electricity.
• France, the former Soviet Union and Japan launched similar programmes.
• However, these early projects failed because they could not solve problems such as pipes cracking because they had become corroded by the radioactive molten salt.
• In 2011, China approved the construction of the prototype Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR)

Thorium:

• Thorium is a radioactive, silvery metal that has been named after the Norse god of thunder Thor.
• It is more abundant and much cheaper than uranium, and it cannot be easily used to create nuclear weapons.
• thorium-232, the isotope used in nuclear reactions.

Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs):

• They are nuclear reactors that use a fluid fuel in the form of very hot fluoride or chloride salt rather than the solid fuel used in most reactors.
• Since the fuel salt is liquid, it can be both the fuel (producing the heat) and the coolant (transporting the heat to the power plant).

Benefits:

• These are Small-scale reactors which can be more efficienct, flexible and economic.
• easy to design
• No chemical reactivity with air or water
• built-in remote desert regions to provide power for more densely populated areas.
• No environmental pollution