Chinese huge thorium reserves

Thorium, radioactive metal existed in huge quantities in the Chinese border, may be the key to providing almost infinite energy, according to Interesting Engineering. Discovery shows that Thorium reserves in this country are far beyond the estimated.

The study ended in 2020 and published in the Geological Review magazine emphasized that Thorium could revolutionize the global energy production and how to decrease depending on fossil fuels. An unnamed geologist in Beijing explained the importance of discovery. “For more than a century, countries participated in fossil fuel wars. In fact, the endless source of energy is located right below our feet. Imagine the cargo ship by a large container reactor, running through the ocean for years without fuel,” the scientist said.

Thorium is a silver metal that can produce 20 times more energy than uranium. Unlike uranium -based reactors, the Thorium hot salt reactor (TMSR) is very compact, does not require cooling water, cannot melt and produce very little radioactive waste that lasts long. Last year, China approved the plan to build the first TMSR power plant in the world in the Gobi desert. It is expected that this pilot project will produce 10 Megawatts and operate in 2029.

In addition, the report shows the huge potential of Thorium in mine waste in China. The amount of mine waste for 5 years from an iron ore mine in the buttocks contains enough thorium to meet the energy needs of American households for more than 1,000 years. The OBO Bayan mine complex can provide about one million tons of Thorium, enough to produce electricity for China for 60,000 years. According to the leader of a senior Honghai fan engineer at a key laboratory on exploration – exploitation of uranium resources and nuclear remote sensing in Beijing, the source of Thorium in the tail of the ore has not been touched.

Survey on Thorium nationwide identified 233 rich areas throughout China, concentrated in 5 main belts from Xinjiang to Guangdong. These mines are mainly derived from Magma and hydrothermal, often found next to rare earth elements. In many regions like Fujian and Hainan, the rich Monazite sandy sand also contains Thorium that can be easily exploited.

However, there are still many big challenges around discovered. Exploiting Thorium from rare earth ores requires large amounts of acid and energy, producing hundreds of tons of waste water on each refined thorium gram.

China’s thorium research coincides with advances in nuclear thrust technology. China recently announced the Kun-24AP, designing the first Thorium-powered nuclear container in the world. The accuracy of China’s total Thorium reserves is kept confidential due to the national security regulations, but the latest finding shows that it has almost infinite clean energy.