Mark Halper writing for SmartPlanet reports
the U.S. Department of Energy is quietly collaborating with China on an
alternative nuclear power design known as the molten salt reactor that
should run on thorium for fuel.
According to a March presentation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on thorium molten salt reactors, Peter Lyons DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy is co-chairing the partnership’s executive committee, along with Jiang Mianheng from the CAS.
CAS is a Chinese government group overseeing about 100 research institutes. The CAS and the DOE have established what CAS calls the “CAS and DOE Nuclear Energy Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding.”
The CAS presentation describes a China that’s keenly interested in thorium as a future CO2-free source of power in a country choking on the emissions of its coal fired power plants.
One prime reason for China’s interest in thorium is it has an ample supply of thorium, which occurs in monazite, a mineral that also contains rare earths, the metals that are vital for industrial production of most high tech products. China dominates the world’s rare earth market and is believed to be sitting on substantial stockpiles of thorium that it has already extracted from the rare earth mining and processing.
China is said to be developing at least two thorium reactors, and is looking at molten salt technology as well as at another approach that triggers a thorium reaction by using a particle accelerator – a technique pioneered by Nobel Prize winning physicist and former CERN director Carlo Rubbia.
The deal with the DOE is an effort to better understand the workings of the molten salt variety, which the U.S. has already build, run, and tested – over 40 years ago. No industrial espionage needed – the information and technical advice seems to be part of the deal.
What isn’t known is what the U.S. gets from the deal. So much for an open and accountable government – again. Oddly, the U.S. could have chosen to commercialize thorium-fuelled reactors and by now would be a massive leading exporter of reactors.
Read more: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/U.S.-China-Collaborate-on-Thorium-Nuclear-Power-Research.html
According to a March presentation at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on thorium molten salt reactors, Peter Lyons DOE’s assistant secretary for nuclear energy is co-chairing the partnership’s executive committee, along with Jiang Mianheng from the CAS.
CAS is a Chinese government group overseeing about 100 research institutes. The CAS and the DOE have established what CAS calls the “CAS and DOE Nuclear Energy Cooperation Memorandum of Understanding.”
The CAS presentation describes a China that’s keenly interested in thorium as a future CO2-free source of power in a country choking on the emissions of its coal fired power plants.
One prime reason for China’s interest in thorium is it has an ample supply of thorium, which occurs in monazite, a mineral that also contains rare earths, the metals that are vital for industrial production of most high tech products. China dominates the world’s rare earth market and is believed to be sitting on substantial stockpiles of thorium that it has already extracted from the rare earth mining and processing.
China is said to be developing at least two thorium reactors, and is looking at molten salt technology as well as at another approach that triggers a thorium reaction by using a particle accelerator – a technique pioneered by Nobel Prize winning physicist and former CERN director Carlo Rubbia.
The deal with the DOE is an effort to better understand the workings of the molten salt variety, which the U.S. has already build, run, and tested – over 40 years ago. No industrial espionage needed – the information and technical advice seems to be part of the deal.
What isn’t known is what the U.S. gets from the deal. So much for an open and accountable government – again. Oddly, the U.S. could have chosen to commercialize thorium-fuelled reactors and by now would be a massive leading exporter of reactors.
Read more: http://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/U.S.-China-Collaborate-on-Thorium-Nuclear-Power-Research.html
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