Embracing a cleaner future, using a blast from the past

‘Failsafe’ molten salt reactors are part of China’s ambitious nuclear energy program

Is this clean and green energy source worth its salt?

Architects of China’s nuclear energy program sure hope so.

Over the next 20 years, the Chinese plan to become the world’s leader in nuclear power—with next-generation “molten salt” reactors in the plans, alongside about 30 new conventional reactors.

With a molten salt cooling the reactor and carrying heat to drive a turbine, the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics hopes that this so-called “failsafe” technology will move disasters like Chernobyl and Fukushima permanently into the past tense.

“This has been China’s dream for a half-century,” Xu Hongjie, director of the Shanghai Institute’s molten salt program, tells the MIT Technology Review. “Previously, we lacked the necessary knowledge and skills to make it a reality. Now we have the resources and the technology and the expertise. Now we can do it.”

The International Energy Agency says global nuclear capacity must more than double by 2050 for the world to stay within 2 degrees Celsius on the climate change front. The Chinese hope that a robust nuclear program, and its abundant zero-emission promises, will allow them to end their dependence on coal.

The most intriguing element about these “new” molten salt reactors? They’re actually a blast from the past, having been invented at Tennessee’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory a half-century ago.

In 2015, China ranked third in the world alongside Russia, generating 7% of the world’s nuclear energy power, behind the United States (33%) and France (17%).

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