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Originally posted by mudguts: ↑

And also developing a thorium reactor. (even more plentiful than Uranium)

China to launch world’s first thorium molten salt nuclear power station in 2025

While uranium reactors depend on solid fuels, thorium reactors use an environmentally safer liquid fuel that operates at normal pressure.

n a significant moment for nuclear energy development, China plans to set up the world’s first molten salt nuclear power station in the Gobi Desert.

The innovative facility, which China claims will start operating by 2025, intends to reshape global energy with its high-end technology and prospects for a safer and greener nuclear power industry.

Instead of uranium, this plant uses thorium as its fuel. Its reactor does not need water for cooling because it utilizes liquid salt or carbon dioxide to transfer heat and make electricity.

China’s choice to develop a thorium salt nuclear power plant shows its dedication to progressing energy technologies and addressing environmental issues linked with traditional fossil fuels.

Given the effort to cut carbon emissions and combat climate change impacts, exploring energy sources like thorium-based nuclear power is increasingly important.

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Rolls-Royce One Step Closer To SMRs

JULY 30, 2024
tags: nuclear

By Paul Homewood
h/t Philip Bratby

Rolls-Royce has cleared a key hurdle in the race to build Britain’s first mini-nuclear power plant, as competition across Europe ramps up.
On Tuesday, the FTSE 100 engineering giant became the first developer to advance a small modular reactor (SMR) design to the final stage of examination by UK regulators.
Helena Perry, director of safety and regulatory affairs at Rolls-Royce SMR, said the latest approval was “the most important milestone to date in advancing deployment of Rolls-Royce SMRs in the UK”.
She added: “We have built fantastic momentum and the team will move directly into step three of this rigorous independent assessment of our technology – ideally positioning us to deliver low-carbon nuclear power and support the UK’s transition to net zero.”
The Derby-based company wants to build a new generation of lower-cost power plants, made from modular parts that would be produced in factories and then assembled on site.

SMRs would each generate 470 megawatts of electricity and cost between £2bn and £3bn initially. Rolls-Royce aims to bring that number down gradually through economies of scale.
The Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) said Rolls has now been cleared to move into the third and final stage of the UK’s generic design assessment.
That process is expected to conclude by the end of 2026, after which Rolls will be able to apply for site-specific approval to build its first SMR.
A summary assessment published by the ONR on Tuesday said that the regulator has “not identified any fundamental safety, security or safeguards shortfalls that could prevent permissioning the construction of a power station based on the generic Rolls-Royce SMR design”.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2024/07/30/rolls-royce-clears-key-hurdle-race-build-mini-nukes/