If you’re a regular reader of Mining Memo, you’ll know we spent the last few weeks covering nuclear and the potential opportunity in certain uranium stocks.
It was part of a special three-part series that you can revisit here.
But if you want to explore the future of nuclear energy even further, you have to look at what’s happening in China.
Which is why this piece from the South China Morning Post caught my attention last week:
China has world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor thanks to ‘strategic stamina.’
According to the article, Chinese scientists have made what’s described as a breakthrough in thorium reactor technology: successfully adding ‘fresh fuel’ to an operational reactor.
You can read the full piece here.
Mining Memo’s Take
Scientists have been trying to crack the code on thorium reactors for decades, and China could be within spitting distance of making this a reality.
US scientists pioneered the research way back in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ultimately, they abandoned the thorium idea due to several technical issues. Also, given its obsession with weapons, the US wanted to keep its focus on uranium.
But in recent years, the Chinese have re-ignited the idea of commercial-scale thorium reactors.
This hasn’t captured much attention… Western commentators have played down China’s ability to make this technology work.
But as far as I can tell, underestimating China is a fool’s game.
This has the potential to be another ‘DeepSeek moment’ for the West, but on a far grander scale.
What do I mean?
As you might remember, DeepSeek was the small Chinese AI outfit that shocked the world by delivering comparable AI technology at a fraction of the cost to its mega-cap US rivals.
Why This Matters
Thorium reactors offer several advantages over conventional uranium-fuelled reactors.
The #1 Advantage:
They generate way more energy, a whopping 200 times more than conventional uranium-based reactors!
This is nuclear power on steroids, but it doesn’t have the same safety concerns as traditional uranium-fueled reactors.
And perception is everything when it comes to the adoption of nuclear.
Despite nuclear power trumping virtually every other form of energy: coal, oil, gas, wind, solar… In terms of its efficiency and energy ‘density’… It’s the FEAR of nuclear that continues to hold it back.
That’s kept the global economy hobbled by hanging onto less efficient energy sources.
However, thorium reactors have the potential to change public sentiment.
First, they produce far lower levels of radioactive waste than uranium-based reactors.
There’s even research to find ways to repurpose waste so it can be recycled and reused as future fuel, meaning there might be no waste at all.
But perhaps most important, there’s virtually zero risk of a nuclear meltdown if combined with a cooling system that uses molten salt.
The Chinese ‘Thorium experiment’ does precisely that in the remote Western Gobi Desert.
The Game Changer: Thorium Fuel COMBINED with Molten Salt Cooling
Traditional reactors use water for cooling.
However, water has a much lower boiling temperature than molten salt, the point at which liquids turn to vapour.
It’s as high as 590°C versus water, just 100°C.
As you might know, when water heats, it boils, and that creates pressure.
When traditional reactors overheat, the rising pressure can compromise the structural integrity of a reactor, potentially causing it to rupture.
Just like when steam erupts from your car engine as it overheats, causing it to crack the rugged outer steel casing, the cylinder head.
Except it’s not green coolant spilling out; it’s deadly radioactive steam!
This happened during the Three Mile Island accident in the US in 1979—a major blow and setback for nuclear adoption in the West.
So, to reduce this risk, traditional reactors must be overengineered, using mountains of reinforced concrete to prevent a possible rupture.
And that contributes to the enormous CAPEX and build times associated with nuclear power projects.
That’s yet another reason nations are hesitant to adopt nuclear power.
But Molten Salt Reactors Are ‘Meltdown Proof’
That means they don’t need the same level of ‘over-engineering,’ making them faster and cheaper to build versus conventional reactors.
For all these reasons, molten salt thorium reactors could revolutionise global energy.
But the spoils go to whoever can install this technology first
China holds that advantage.
The country could be within striking distance of achieving the energy industry’s holy grail: tapping into a vast source of cheap base-load power.
That’s also carbon-neutral, cheap and safe.
That will deliver significant advantages, starting with manufacturing. Nations with thorium reactors could build anything at a fraction of the cost to everyone else.
But it’ll also position places like China as entirely energy independent, no longer reliant on the Middle East (or Australia) for fossil fuels.
Widespread installation of thorium reactors would be a crystallising moment for the Middle Kingdom.
History shows that radical changes in energy generation have given birth to new global superpowers. The US’s rise to power was undoubtedly helped by its access to vast oil fields over a century ago.
And this is perhaps what thorium reactors could do to China’s economy.
As an Aussie investor, you should pay attention to important developments like this. And as always, there are strategies to take advantage.
To learn more, you can join me here at my paid investment advisory, Diggers & Drillers.
Regards,
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James Cooper,
Editor, Mining: Phase One and Diggers and Drillers
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