China has already won the nuclear energy career to the US and Russia. And he has done it thanks to a avant -garde reactor

China’s nuclear program was born in the 50s of the last century. The cold war held by the US and the Soviet Union had incited these two countries to Develop your nuclear arsenal With a shocking speed, and Mao Zedong, the co -founder and leader of the Communist Party of China, decided to ask the Soviet Union for help for launch your own nuclear plan. In 1955 this cooperation allowed China to build its first floor of Uranium-235 and Plutonium productionand also supported the foundation of the National Nuclear Corporation of China (CNC).

Only four years later, in 1959, the Soviet Union ended the collaboration with China in nuclear technology. This decision was a very hard setback for the country led by Mao Zedong, who embarked on A career towards self -sufficient in the development of nuclear energy. However, China’s plan prospered very slowly during the next three decades. The first nuclear power plant designed and built entirely by China, the Qinshan plant, was successfully connected to the electricity network on December 15, 1991.

At that time China could not rival at all with The development of nuclear technology that had reached the US and the almost extinct Soviet Union. In 2002 China only had two nuclear centrals in operation. Today has no less than 58 nuclear reactors in activity. Only US has more (94). During the last two decades China’s civil and military nuclear program It has advanced with a vertiginous speed, but the most important thing is not the number of reactors that it currently has in operation: the really differential thing is that it has been placed At the forefront in nuclear technology.

China leads thanks to its nuclear reactor of molten salts and Torio

The TMSR-LF1 reactor officially entered into operation on October 11, 2023. A few months later, on June 17, 2024, he began working at full power. And on October 8 of last year the technicians who operate it detected protacinium-233 (PA-233), a radioactive isotope intermediate derived from the transformation of the thorium into Uranium-233 as part of the fuel cycle of the thorium. This nuclear reactor is in the Minqin industrial complex of the province of Gansu, in northern China.

It has a power of 2 thermal megawatts (MWT), and, although it will not be the first Fourth Generation Nuclear Reactor in activity, and neither the first one that Torio will use as fuel, yes It will be the first of molten salts that will use this chemical element. However, the ambition of this Asian country does not end here; It is already planning to build a molten salts and torium reactor of more capacity for 2030, although China is not the only country that bets on this technology.

The US, France or India are some of those who have also invested in research programs that pursue the development of nuclear reactors capable of generating electricity from the thorium. India’s in particular is interesting because it aims to demonstrate the viability of fuel cycles based on thorium in the context of its advanced heavy water reactor project. This technology is still far from being adopted in a generalized way, but its advantages closely link it to the future of nuclear energy.

Our planet brings together approximately 12 million tons of thorium, so this chemical element is three times more abundant In the earth’s cortex that Uranium used as fuel in the current nuclear centrals. The largest deposits reside in China, Brazil, Canada, Australia, USA, Greenland, Russia, Norway, South Africa and Venezuela, although prospects reflect that the country that Torio has is precisely one of the ones that is investing most in the development of reactors capable of using it: India.

Another point in your favor is that it is as easy to extract as uranium, but it has the inconvenience that it is not directly physable. It is necessary to introduce it into a reactor that manufactures uranium from Torio, and what it produces is not uranium-235, it is Uranium-233, but the important thing is that it is physable. Once this uranium has occurred, it can be introduced into a conventional reactor like those we have in Spain, which could not work with Torio, but with a derivative of that element. In addition, experts say that molten salts nuclear reactors are safer than reactors installed in the nuclear power plants that are currently in operation.

Two of the reasons are that they use as a refrigerant lithium fluoride and beryllium at a very low pressure, and the fuel remains dissolved in the form of salt, so it is very unlikely that an accident could trigger the fusion of the reactor’s core. Another quality of these reactors that are worth not overlooking is that Its architecture allows them to be installed undergroundwhich, again, increases your safety. But this is not all. Another peculiar and positive feature of these reactors is that they allow to recharge the fuel while remaining in operation.

And, in addition, the fact that they do not need water to maintain the refrigerated nucleus allows them to be installed in regions in which water is scarce, or, simply, in areas where there is no river and are not close to the sea. This is one of the reasons why China is investing in the development of this technology as a means to build fourth generation nuclear power plants in the most remote and arid regions of the country.

It is also worth not overlooking that Radioactive waste They generate have a much shorter semi -grid period than that of the residues of the reactors that use uranium, which logically facilitates their management. And, in addition, the folk salts reactors They use less fuel Because the efficiency of the thorium is much higher than that of uranium. Virtually all fuel is involved in nuclear fission, so its use, in theory, is maximum.

Image | Xataka

In Xataka | The largest nuclear power plant in the planet is a beast with seven reactors. Is ready to return after Fukushima