WHY CHINA IS BUILDING A THORIUM MOLTEN-SALT REACTOR

Summary from the TLDR newsletter

China plans to start building a demonstration thorium-based molten-salt reactor in the Gobi Desert next year. The 10-megawatt reactor project is scheduled to be operational by 2030. Thorium-232 is more abundant on Earth than uranium-235, but it isn't directly fissile, so it must first be transformed into fissile uranium-233, which is technically feasible, but it is unknown whether that is economical and practical. If feasible, thorium, which is waste product of China's huge rare earth mining industry, could reduce dependence on uranium.