What is really going to change the world – China’s nuclear energy breakthrough

China has operationalized the world’s first thorium nuclear reactor

As the world is spellbound by the zigzagging tariff war drama launched by reality TV star Donnie Trump and people marvel at the sheer destructiveness of a stupid mad man, a truly momentous event just happened in China.

In early April, Chinese scientists achieved a milestone in clean energy technology by successfully adding fresh fuel to an operational thorium molten salt reactor, the first of its kind in the world. The breakthrough signals the arrival of commercially viable thorium nuclear reactor in China’s future energy mix.

Thorium is much safer and more abundant alternative to uranium for nuclear power as it is widely available, cheaper to extract, has higher energy density, and produces far less long-lasting nuclear waste.

It is far safer than uranium as it is not fissile on its own so cannot be weaponized. Nuclear industry experts see thorium as the holy grail for future energy revolution next to nuclear fusion, which I’ll touch on briefly at the end.

Thorium is found in abundant quantity in earth’s crust all over the world. One single mine in China’s Inner Mongolia, the Bayan Obo mine, has enough thorium deposits to theoretically meet China’s energy needs for the next 20,000 years, while producing minimal radioactive waste.

The most promising technological direction is to use thorium in molten salt reactors. While multiple nations are developing the technology, China is the first to build an experimental thorium molten salt reactor.

The latest breakthrough to add fresh fuel to an operational reactor indicates such technology is ready for sustained commercial deployment.

It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, putting China at the forefront of a global race to harness thorium 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 as the fuel source. The reactor is designed to sustainably generate 2 megawatts of thermal power.

The development was announced by the project’s chief scientist, Xu Hongjie, at the Chinese Academy of Sciences on April 8. Xu said China “now leads the global frontier for thorium nuclear technology”.

China’s thorium molten salt reactor project began with theoretical research in the 1970s, and in 2009 the CAS leadership tasked Xu with making the next-generation nuclear energy technology a reality.

The project team expanded from dozens of members to more than 400 researchers within two years.

“We learned by doing, and did by learning,” Xu said. The challenges were immense – designing new materials, troubleshooting for extreme temperatures, and dealing with engineering components that had never been built before.

After construction of the experimental reactor started in 2018, most of the scientists involved in the project gave up their holidays – they worked day and night, and some stayed on site for more than 300 days in a year. The Gobi Desert is thousands of kilometres away from the major coastal cities.

By October 2023 it was built and achieved criticality – a sustained nuclear chain reaction. And by June 2024 it had reached full-power operation.

Earlier this year the process of thorium fuel reloading was completed while the reactor was running – making it the only operational thorium reactor in the world.

“We chose the hardest path, but the right one,” Xu was quoted as saying, referring to the drive for a real-world application rather than a purely academic pursuit.

A much bigger thorium molten salt reactor is already being built in China and is slated to achieve criticality by 2030. That research reactor is designed to produce 10 megawatts of electricity, enough to power 10,000 homes for a year.

China’s state-owned shipbuilding industry has also unveiled a design for thorium powered container ship that could potentially achieve emission-free maritime transport.

Meanwhile, US efforts to develop a molten salt reactor remain on paper, despite bipartisan congressional support and Department of Energy initiatives.

Xu said, “in the nuclear game, there are no quick wins. You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years.”

In addition to thorium reactors, China is on the leading edge of developing nuclear fusion technology (as opposed to current fission technology) that could lead to carbon-free, almost limitless, and clean energy. Fusion is the way sun powers itself and generates 4 times the amount of energy as fission.

At the heart of this fusion revolution lies the tokamak, a donut-shaped device designed to contain superheated plasma using powerful magnetic fields. By mimicking the sun’s conditions—where hydrogen atoms fuse into helium—tokamaks enable the release of tremendous amounts of energy.

China is at the leading edge in global nuclear fusion development. Most recently, China achieved several key milestones in fusion research, including –

- Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST), dubbed as “artificial sun” in China, has set new record in January 2025. The project is based Hefei and run by the China Academy of Sciences (CAS), the world’s leading scientific research institute.

EAST maintained a high-confinement plasma for 1,066 seconds, surpassing previous world record of 403 seconds – a crucial step towards sustained fusion reactions necessary for practical energy generation.

- HL-2M Tokamak, located in Chengdu, is China’s largest and most advanced tokamak. It has achieved first plasma discharge and high plasma parameters, capable of producing plasma temperatures exceeding 200 million degrees Celsius and plasma currents over 2.5 million amperes, essential for efficient fusion reactions.

- HH70 Tokamak, developed by Shanghai-based private company Energy Singularity, stands out for integrating high temperature superconducting magnets made from REBCO (rare earth barium copper oxide). This cutting edge technology dramatically reduces the size and cost of conventional tokamaks, paving the way for more accessible and commercial fusion energy.

Energy Singularity plans to construct a next-gen tokamak by 2027 and a full scale technological demonstrator for fusion nuclear reaction by 2030.

Although commercial viability remains the final frontier, breakthroughs like EAST and HH70 showcase the significant strides towards turning nuclear fusion into a practical energy solution.

All the noises around tariffs and trade wars aside, technology is ultimately the path to human development and prosperity. Let’s keep our eyes on the ball.