China Is Building a Thorium Molten Salt Reactor - Here's Why It Matters

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about an interesting development coming from China in regards to Thorium nuclear reactors

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[joedegabriele]

I studied the nuclear industry in the late 70s and I came to the same conclusion Thorium is the safest and cleanest solution for the world energy needs but I agree politics have killed any such suggestion in my country Australia

[jimbobur]

I did simulation work for a Thorium ADSR during an internship a number of years ago. I'm glad to hear more countries are putting more resources into developing Thorium reactors.

[aatsiii]

I think the coolest part of molten salt reactors is the safety plug. It gets too hot, plug melts and drains the fuel. This feature is fully automatic and at the same time passive! Needs no power, no controller, no human intervention. Just works. You should mention this in video :)

[musicdunc]

Anton, I’ve recently subscribed. Regardless if you take the time to read these comments, I want to share that I appreciate your efforts to educate the general public. I think you are doing a fine job of tapping into viewers curiosity. With so much mind numbing repetition uploaded daily to YouTube, your videos reinforce the notion that learning should indeed be a life long pursuit.

[thesunthatneversets]

Anton I just wanna say you’re an inspiration to me, you’re one of the people that keeps my fascination with the world going, even through tough times. I’m doing my masters in the Philosophy of Science, you’re one of the reasons I chose it over philosophy of mind.

[abrahamdk]

I was always been a fan of Molten Salt Reactors for years now. I am glad to hear someone is going to do it, because this will prove it is safe and doable. Politics destroyed our chances and set us back many years.

[TheExpatpom]

Someone’s probably mentioned this already but thorium reactors can produce plutonium, but in the form of Pu-238. And that’s actually useful for powering space probes and rovers, especially any that have to work in the dark or too far from the sun for solar power to be an option. Both Voyager probes used it, as do Curiosity and Perseverance on Mars. I wonder if China is looking at this and if their space agency is planning to use domestically produced Pu-238, or whether China will become an exporter to other countries’ space agencies.

[jrtstrategicapital]

I hope China is successful w this reactor…the whole world can learn from this…ive had experience in nuclear design during the 80s…I think this alternative design is best as well. Then we can follow…

[jamesmcdonald]

Politicians' understanding of nuclear power comes entirely from The Simpsons.

[badgerfool]

I've been talking about this for years, and usually get called a conspiracy theorist lol. Thanks for doing a video on it! The West will definitely regret letting China get ahead on this one, thanks military industrial complex.

[aeasus]

You can burn 95% of uranium waste rod in a thorium reactor. This significantly shrinks our nuclear waste problem. And it generates clean electricity. It's a win/win :)

[tombowen]

The UK Nuclear Research facility at Winfrith in Dorset were also involved in the development of LIFTER (molten thorium salt ) reactors back in the early 60’s - I knew a German physicist who worked there as a young man. He told me that it was shelved more due to problems arising from lack of suitable materials for handling the molten salts at high temperatures as well as gamma shielding problems due to U233 production in the generation process.

[krakenmahboy]

I love these longer, nearly 20-minute long videos -- and it's about thorium reactors! I love it!

[barbmack]

This was a very well organized and interesting summary of this technology.

[berberbro]

"Right...So you're telling me that we can't use this stuff to obliterate a metropolis??? What a waste of money this is!"

[jeroenvangastel]

Thanks Anton, learned a lot more on these reactors today.

[Brian]

Also, you can feed nuclear waste from existing nuclear plants into the process and work it down into shorter half-life substances. And a lot of the by-products are rare sought after elements. Even in a world of free fusion energy, there is a place for these.

[shiraz]

I bet a lot of American politicians had a personal/financial interest in the oil industry as well.

[Ikbeneengeit]

So you're saying, the reason we can't have Thor reactors is that they don't make good cold war bombs? Crazy.

[ruudkraan]

That’s what Holland must do. A molten salt reactor. Very good.