China's new reactor

This past summer, China started up the first fully operational small nuclear reactor using thorium fuel in molten salt. In the fall they added fuel to the reactor without shutting down. Uranium reactors must be shut down to refuel and this is time consuming and means loss of power. Thorium is three times more abundant than Uranium and is found on every continent. Thorium comes full strength and needs no enrichment like uranium. Thorium produces far less waste products and can use up existing stored waste. Thorium is fail safe meaning it cannot over heat as the reaction shuts down with loss of power. Thorium reactors do not use water and thus operate at normal pressure. These reactors run at much higher temperature (1,300 F) which is more thermodynamically efficient. In time the rest of the world will catch up with China.