Latest news with #XuHongjie
Yahoo
30-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
‘Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance': Abandoned US research leads to nuclear power breakthrough — for China
When you buy through links on our articles, Future and its syndication partners may earn a commission. For the first time ever, scientists in China have refueled an experimental nuclear reactor without shutting it down — a significant advance in weaning the world off fossil fuels and onto more efficient, low-carbon energy sources The breakthrough, achieved using a prototype molten-salt design which runs on liquid thorium instead of uranium, means that China "now leads the global frontier" in nuclear innovation, the project's lead scientist, Xu Hongjie, said during an April 8 meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thorium reactors were first developed in the 1950s in the U.S., before it went all-in on uranium, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. Following this decision, this early research was later declassified, and the Chinese researchers made use of it for the current project. "The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor," Xu said at the meeting, as reported by the South China Morning Post, which cites Guangming Daily. Drawing on Aesop's classic fable, he added: "Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance." The secret facility housing the reactor, which came online in June 2024, is reportedly hidden away in the Gobi Desert in the north of the country near the Mongolian border. It can sustainably generate two megawatts (2MW) of energy — enough to power up to 2,000 households and about twice the minimum of standard utility-scale generators, which, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), "have a nameplate generation capacity of at least 1 MW". Thorium reactors are a type of molten salt reactor (MSR) that — as the name suggests — dissolve a fuel source into a molten salt, which can act as both a coolant and part of the fuel mix. Once funneled inside the reactor chamber, this mixture is heated to temperatures above 1,112 Fahrenheit (600 degrees Celsius) and bombarded with high-energy neutrons, causing the thorium to form uranium-233 atoms that split and release energy via nuclear fission. Molten salt nuclear reactors are considered significantly safer than their solid fuel counterparts as they can't suffer a meltdown — their already molten fuel simply cools and solidifies when exposed to air. This means that disasters such as those that happened at Chernobyl in 1986 and Fukushima in 2011 wouldn't be possible with a thorium reactor. The reactors also produce significantly less nuclear waste than standard uranium reactors. In fact, waste from solid fuel uranium reactors can be fed as fuel into molten salt reactors. While uranium can be used in MSRs, scientists generally prefer thorium because it is easier to mine and three-times more abundant than uranium. China has long targeted getting a fully-fledged thorium-powered power station online. The country contributes roughly 27% of the world's global carbon emissions, and Chinese President Xi Jinping intends to make it carbon-neutral by 2060. Thorium is a particularly attractive way to meet this target for China because it recently discovered vast amounts of the element in its territory. A national geographical survey found the country has, by some estimates, enough of the material to satisfy its energy needs for 60,000 years, the South China Morning Post reported. RELATED STORIES —'A dream come true': Nuclear clock breakthrough could revolutionize study of the universe's fundamental forces —China to activate world's first 'clean' nuclear reactor in September —China's 'artificial sun' shatters nuclear fusion record by generating steady loop of plasma for 1,000 seconds Molten-salt reactor concepts were first devised in 1946 as part of a plan by the United States Army Air Forces (the predecessor to the U.S. Air Force) to create a nuclear-powered supersonic jet. But the experiments had too many snags, including the molten salt corroding the reactor metal, leading to their abandonment in 1954. Several groups have attempted to make viable thorium reactors since then, but the element's weak radioactivity made it difficult to build fission reactions up to sustainable levels. It isn't yet clear how China, which has been working on thorium molten salt reactors since the 1970s, solved these technical problems. But Xu attributes it to consistent application. "In the nuclear game, there are no quick wins," he said at the meeting. "You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years."
Daily Mail
30-04-2025
- Science
- Daily Mail
Nuclear breakthrough: China's experimental reactor refuels WITHOUT shutting down - taking the world closer towards limitless clean energy
In the quest to safely generate limitless clean energy, China has just taken a giant step closer. Scientists in Gansu province in the country's west have achieved the milestone of reloading fuel to an operational nuclear fission reactor while it was running. The achievement shows fission reactors can run and be refueled continuously – potentially offering a constant source of power generation. Drawing upon declassified US research, Chinese engineers began constructing the experimental machine – a thorium molten salt reactor (MSR) – back in 2018. Thorium MSRs are a type of advanced nuclear technology that use liquid fuels, typically molten salts, as both a fuel and a coolant – and are generally safer than existing fission reactors which use uranium. It marks the first long-term, stable operation of the technology, reports South China Morning Post (SCMP), citing Chinese communist party newspaper Guangming Daily. Xu Hongjie, the project's chief scientist, said China 'now leads the global frontier' in the energy revolution, following decades of intensive research. Xu said: 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor. We were that successor.' The world-first was announced by Mr Xu during a meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing on April 8. In a cheeky dig, Xu referred to America's research into molten salt reactors in the 1960s and 1970s, eventually abandoned in favour of uranium-based systems. 'In the nuclear game, there are no quick wins,' he was quoted as saying. 'You need to have strategic stamina, focusing on doing just one thing for 20, 30 years.' In reference to Aesop's famous fable, he said: 'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance.' His team at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics spent years dissecting declassified American documents and bettering their experiments, SCMP reports. 'We mastered every technique in the literature – then pushed further,' Xu added. This experimental reactor is hidden away in the Gobi Desert city of Wuwei in Gansu province and can generate two megawatts (2MW) of energy – enough to power 2,000 households. Only reaching full-power operation in June last year, it is the only operational thorium reactor in the world. What is thorium? Thorium is a naturally-occurring, slightly radioactive metal discovered in 1828 by Swedish chemist Jons Jakob Berzelius. More abundant in nature than uranium, thorium can be used as a fuel source for nuclear energy, but not directly. Thorium itself is not a nuclear fuel, although it can be used to create such a fuel (in conjunction with a fissile material such as recycled plutonium). But a much bigger thorium molten salt reactor now being built is set to achieve its first sustained nuclear chain reaction by 2030. Estimated to be 500 times more abundant than the uranium-232 used in conventional nuclear reactors, thorium has been hailed as a potential solution to the demand for nuclear power. Nuclear reactors already in operation around the world create energy by forcing radioactive elements to undergo a process called fission. During this process, the element breaks down into smaller, more stable elements and releases heat which can be used to drive steam turbines, in turn producing electricity. Thorium on its own is not fissile, meaning it cannot be used for fission, but it can provide the basis for a fission reaction. This is because thorium is 'fertile', meaning it can transmute into uranium-233 (U-233) when bombarded with neutrons. In a molten-salt reactor, thorium is mixed with a chemical called lithium fluoride and heated to about 1400°C (2550°F). This mixture is then bombarded with neutrons until some of the thorium starts to transform into uranium-232, which then decays in a fission reaction. Nuclear fusion vs. nuclear fission Nuclear fusion and fission are nuclear processes; they involve nuclear forces to change the nucleus of atoms. Fusion joins two light elements (low atomic mass number), forming a heavier element. For fusion to occur, hydrogen atoms are put under high heat & pressure so they fuse together. Meanwhile, fission splits a heavy element (with a high atomic mass number) into fragments. In both cases, energy is freed because mass of the remaining nucleus is smaller than mass of reacting nuclei. Both reactions release energy which, in a power plant, can boil water to drive a steam generator, making electricity. Source: International Atomic Energy Agency As it decays, this uranium then produces more neutrons which convert additional thorium into fuel. In theory, this reactor design could turn the extremely abundant element into a nearly limitless source of power. Molten-salt reactors also produce significantly less nuclear waste and remove the risk of dangerous nuclear meltdown by keeping the levels of fissile material relatively low. What's more, China has a thorium source that could supply enough fuel to power the country for 60,000 years, geologists in Beijing have claimed. The Bayan Obo mining complex in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of northern China, could contain enough thorium to supply China's household energy demands 'almost forever', a national survey reportedly found. It identified 233 thorium-rich zones across the country and, if accurate, suggests that thorium reserves in China significantly exceed previous estimates. The Wuwei experimental reactor is different from the 'Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak' (EAST), a fusion reactor located in Hefei in Anhui province. Known as China's artificial sun, it set the record for running for as hot and as long as possible – for 1,066 seconds at 180million°F (100million°C) – seven times hotter than the sun's core. EAST could be a precursor to the first ever fusion power plants that supply power directly to the grid and electricity to people's homes. These power plants could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power-generation sector by diverting away from the use of fossil fuels like coal and gas. Meanwhile, the SPARC nuclear fusion reactor, a US project involving MIT, is currently in development in Devens, Massachusetts and scheduled to start operations in 2026. South Korea also has its own 'artificial sun', the Korea Superconducting Tokamak Advanced Research (KSTAR), which has run at 180million°F (100million°C) for 48 seconds. And Japan's reactor, called JT-60SA and switched on in Naka north of Tokyo late 2023, is a six-storey-high machine measuring 50 feet high and 44 feet wide. Built and operated jointly by Europe and Japan, JT-60SA will be the world's largest fusion reactor until the completion of the the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) in France, set to begin delivering power in 2035. How could thorium be used to produce limitless energy? Thorium is a relatively abundant, slightly radioactive element which is commonly produced as a byproduct of mining rare-earth metals. On its own, thorium isn't fissile, which means it doesn't decay into any other isotopes. That means it can't be used in a standard nuclear reactor like uranium-232. However, thorium could be used to make a new type of reactor called a molten-salt reactor. Thorium is 'fertile', which means that an atom of thorium can be transformed into an atom of uranium-232 when it is bombarded with neutrons. In a molten-salt reactor, thorium is dissolved in hot liquid salt and used to 'breed' uranium which then undergoes fission to produce heat. This liquid is then circulated through a heat exchange to remove excess energy and fission materials, leaving behind the thorium to start the reaction again. Molten-salt reactors have a number of benefits but the main advantage is they can be small, produce little radioactive waste, and avoid the risk of a meltdown.
Yahoo
20-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China Fires Up World's First Thorium-Powered Nuclear Reactor
Months after satellites picked up a massive nuclear fusion facility in China's Sichuan province, the country's nuclear industry has blown the lid off fission tech. During a private meeting earlier this month, researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the successful operation of a thorium-powered nuclear reactor located in the Gobi Desert. The team had achieved "full-power operation" last June, according to South China Morning Post, and recently succeeded in reloading the reactor while it was powered up — a world first. It's a major milestone for nuclear power. Thorium offers a more accessible but less weaponizable alternative to uranium, according to the World Nuclear Association, which notes that "thorium-based power reactor fuels would be a poor source for fissile material usable in the illicit manufacture of an explosive device." The Gobi Desert reactor is a two megawatt research unit engineered to use molten salt as fuel carrier and coolant. A molten salt reactor (MSR) theoretically carries far less risk in the event of a meltdown compared to water-based systems, as salts can carry greater loads of thermal energy at much lower pressure. In fact, a "meltdown" is basically a non-factor for these systems — the fuel is already molten. A report sponsored by the US government on MSRs notes that a "possible advantage of the MSR is that the fuel is subject to freezing," so "upon breach of a vessel or pipe... the fuel will disperse, and thus increase its cooling geometry, until it reaches a freezing configuration and thus will be confined to that location and configuration." Basically, imagine lava rolling slowly down a mountain as the air cools it back into rock, compared to a spectacular steam explosion like the incident at Chernobyl. Curiously, MSRs are nothing new. They had their day in the US back in the late 1940s and early 50s, when American cold warriors dumped nearly $1 billion into developing a nuclear-powered stealth bomber. Congress halted research on thorium-fueled airplanes back in 1961, and uranium more or less became the gold standard, due in no small part to its military potential. Assumed obsolete, the US' MSR research has since been made public, forming the foundation of the Gobi Desert team's work. "The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor," said the project's chief scientist Xu Hongjie. "Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance." More on nuclear energy: California Nuclear Power Plant Deploys Generative AI Safety System
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
China builds world's first working thorium reactor using declassified US documents
Chinese scientists have completed a major breakthrough in clean energy by reloading fresh fuel into a working thorium molten salt reactor. They did this while the reactor continued running, marking a significant step forward in the global push to use thorium as a safer and more abundant alternative to uranium in nuclear power. The milestone was revealed at a closed-door meeting on April 8 at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), where project chief scientist Xu Hongjie shared the news with colleagues. According to Guangming Daily, the experimental unit is located in the Gobi Desert and generates 2 megawatts of thermal power. It uses molten salt to carry the fuel and manage heat, while thorium serves as the radioactive fuel source. Experts have long viewed thorium reactors as the next leap in energy innovation. Some scientists estimate that a single thorium-rich mine in Inner Mongolia could theoretically supply China's energy needs for tens of thousands of years with far less radioactive waste than current uranium-based reactors. Xu declared that China had moved into the global lead. 'We now lead the global frontier,' he said at the meeting. Comparing the international race to a classic fable, he added, 'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance.' Thorium offers several advantages over uranium as a nuclear fuel. It is far more abundant in the Earth's crust and produces less long-lived radioactive waste. Its byproducts are also less suitable for weaponization, which reduces security risks. When paired with molten salt technology, the reactor design operates at atmospheric pressure and naturally limits overheating, improving overall safety. These features make thorium reactors appealing in a world pushing for clean and secure energy sources. In the 1960s, American researchers built and tested early molten salt reactors, but the United States eventually shelved the program in favor of uranium-based technology. 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor,' Xu said. 'We were that successor.' Xu and his team at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics studied declassified American documents, recreated the old experiments, and then developed the technology further. 'We mastered every technique in the literature – then pushed further,' he said. The team's efforts ramped up quickly. Construction on the current reactor began in 2018, and the team grew from a few dozen researchers to more than 400. Many skipped holidays and stayed on-site for most of the year. The reactor reached criticality in October 2023, achieved full-power operation by June 2024, and successfully completed in-operation thorium reloading just four months later. Xu said they chose the harder but more meaningful road by focusing on building a real-world solution rather than chasing only academic results. 'We chose the hardest path, but the right one,' he said. He also pointed out the symbolic timing, noting that '57 years ago to the day – June 17 – China detonated its first hydrogen bomb.' Now, China is aiming for a similar disruptive effect in the global energy market. The country is already building a much larger thorium molten salt reactor that is scheduled to reach criticality by 2030 and generate 10 megawatts of electricity. Meanwhile, China's shipbuilding industry has also unveiled blueprints for thorium-powered container ships that could enable zero-emission sea transport.
Express Tribune
18-04-2025
- Science
- Express Tribune
China has world's first thorium reactor in landmark for clean nuclear energy
China has activated the world's only operational thorium molten salt reactor, marking a global breakthrough in clean nuclear energy using declassified United States research. Chinese scientists reloaded fuel into the working reactor in the Gobi Desert without halting operations, a feat revealed during a closed-door meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) on April 8, according to Guangming Daily. The 2-megawatt experimental unit, designed to run on thorium, uses molten salt as a coolant and fuel carrier. Project chief scientist Xu Hongjie confirmed that the reactor had reached critical milestones, including full-power operation in June 2024 and successful in-operation fuel reloading four months later. 'We now lead the global frontier,' Xu said at the meeting. 'Rabbits sometimes make mistakes or grow lazy. That's when the tortoise seizes its chance.' Thorium is seen by experts as a safer, more abundant alternative to uranium. It produces less long-lived radioactive waste and carries a lower risk of weaponisation. Combined with molten salt reactor design—first tested by US scientists in the 1960s—this technology operates at atmospheric pressure and is engineered to self-limit overheating. The Chinese team relied heavily on declassified American research to develop their system. 'The US left its research publicly available, waiting for the right successor,' Xu said. 'We were that successor.' Researchers at the CAS Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics built upon historical data, recreated experiments, and advanced them. Construction began in 2018, and the team has grown to over 400 members, many of whom worked through holidays to keep the project on schedule. The breakthrough aligns with China's ambition to diversify its energy portfolio. A larger 10-megawatt thorium reactor is under construction and expected to reach criticality by 2030. China has also announced plans for thorium-powered cargo ships, aiming to reduce emissions in global maritime transport. Xu noted the symbolic timing of the development, highlighting that June 17 marks the anniversary of China's first hydrogen bomb test. 'We chose the hardest path, but the right one,' he said.
