It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, putting China at the forefront of a global race to harness thorium – considered a safer and more abundant alternative to uranium – for nuclear power.
The experimental reactor, located in the Gobi Desert in China’s west, uses molten salt as the fuel carrier and coolant, and thorium – a radioactive element abundant in the Earth’s crust – as the fuel source. The reactor is reportedly designed to sustainably generate 2 megawatts of thermal power.
Why can’t we spend $20 billion on a full-scale reactor that may very well not work? Why is science so slow?
Science doesn’t have to be slow. Politics and funding are usually the bottleneck.
Yes, but if you increase the funding, they will say “Why is science so expensive?”
yeah either that or sometimes that one biologist illegally gene-editing embryos shows up