If it’s true, China has energy security for the foreseeable future - as Thorium is usually found along side rare earths, and China has the largest deposits of those. More than anywhere else in the world.
Comment on China has world’s first operational thorium nuclear reactor thanks to ‘strategic stamina’
Vorticity@lemmy.world 2 days ago
If true, this is a huge step! Congrats to China!
“Strategic stamina” is something that the US used to have but which has disappeared as the country just tries to catch its breath.
DarkCloud@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Ledivin@lemmy.world 2 days ago
I don’t mean to be a pessimist, but we’ll see how it lasts and scales 😅 it’s certainly promising, but 2MW also isn’t much. I’m curious how large they can scale single reactors, and how close they can safely be to populations - one of the problems with nuclear always ends up being transporting the energy (usually quite far away) once you’ve generated it.
Thedogdrinkscoffee@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Isn’t the loint of Thorium reactors that they are small and modular, thus highly scalable by multiplying units. Your comment about scaling a single reactor is a cheap rhetorical device to miss the point entirely.
DomeGuy@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Scaling small things up is always a logistics and repeatability issue. Always.
We had.technology to put a capsule of three men on the moon for a week before most humans alive today were born, and yet we haven’t gone back because while both “number of humans” and “length of stay” are fairly simple ideas to scale up, we never had the logistics to create and fuel the one.saturn V launch every other day that a permanent moon base would need.
Heck, the Internet is full of ground breaking improvements that were “buried” by the challenge of scaling up out of a lab.
JustAnotherKay@lemmy.world 2 days ago
2MW also isn’t much
It’s a proof of concept, they’re not actually trying to power anything with this. They’re just checking their math on a small scale before doing the full scale lol
dubyakay@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
one of the problems with nuclear always ends up being transporting the energy (usually quite far away) once you’ve generated it
I don’t get this part. How is this any different from transporting power from hydro? Quebec transports hydro power from all the way north at the bay to the south and then even sells it to USA.
Rolder@reddthat.com 2 days ago
You do lose quite a bit of electricity going over long distances, but can overcome that with sheer volume. But that also means the closer the generator to the consumer, the more efficient it’ll be.
fullsquare@awful.systems 1 day ago
they haven’t demonstrated anything yet, but maybe they will develop something. perhaps. maybe. it’s all uncertain at this point and technology for it doesn’t exist yet.
high voltage transmission lines are a thing, look up where lignite or hydro power plants are situated relative to where people live. this is a solved problem
gravitas_deficiency@sh.itjust.works 1 day ago
Currently, we’re trying to catch our breaths while stabbing ourselves in the lungs
futatorius@lemm.ee 1 day ago
How do those boots taste today?
Arcturus@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 day ago
Hopefully better than the coal covered ones you’re clearly working on
bricklove@midwest.social 2 days ago
America has been strategically sitting on a couch eating strategic cheeseburgers for the past 50 years
InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 2 days ago
America has been destroyed by the southern strategy.
kautau@lemmy.world 1 day ago
I mean mostly it was destroyed by
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics
Being executed very well through social media companies that cared about nothing but profit, but yes, that led to the strategy you’re describing
InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 1 day ago
No, that was only possible because of the southern strategy of the 60s-90s, which pivoted electoral weight to the section of our country most enamored with fascist racism.
whostosay@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Lmfao no we have not. Also, have you payed your couch rent this month?
seeigel@feddit.org 1 day ago
So did Europe.