Why China's Thorium-Fueled TMSR-LF1 Reactor is a Really Big Deal

In his words below, Erik Townsend has compiled three very cogent articles explaining Thorium-Fuled Molten Salt Reactors, and why the US may be risking its future in falling behind in the development of inexpensive energy.

Part I: Development History of the TMSR-LF1 Thorium-Fueled Molten Salt Reactor

In September 2018, China broke ground on the second fully operational liquid-fueled molten salt reactor ever built. ORNL built the first one way back in the early 1960s. The second one, which China just built, is the very first molten salt reactor ever built, by anyone, which includes has the ability to breed Thorium into fissile Uranium-233. It’s not quite “Thorium-fueled” yet, but it’s one step closer than has ever been achieved before. It’s called the TMSR-LF1.

Part II: Why the TS-MSBR can make Nuclear cheaper than coal & gas, while LWRs can't

Part I gave the history of how China’s TMSR-LF1 came to be. But who cares? So what that China built a tiny little research reactor out in the middle of the Gobi desert, based on a 65-year old design for an American proof-of-concept reactor that ORNL only bothered to build one of before abandoning the design! Why should anyone care that China has one now, or that it’s more advanced than the one ORNL built back in the early 1960s? As this post will explain, the answer is that (in my ever-so-humble opinion) this design has more potential to make nuclear energy cost less than fossil fuel energy than any other reactor design ever conceived.

This post will argue my case, and I welcome critical feedback from those who disagree in the comments below. If China establishes a firm lead over the rest of the world in commercializing this reactor technology, I predict that will have profound macroeconomic and geopolitical consequences. Part III will argue that case under separate cover.

Part III: China's role in the World Order and how TMSR-LF1 fits into a grand strategy

Part I covered how the TMSR-LF1 came to be, and Part II explained why the TS-MSBR reactor design has the potential to make nuclear energy cost less than energy from fossil fuels. Now Part III will explain why the TS-MSBR reactor design is likely to be central to China’s long-term energy strategy, and how it will give China an immense economic (and eventually, military) advantage over the West.