Haha thorium reactors go brrrrr.
this post was submitted on 06 Nov 2025
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I once said that the likelihood of a nuclear cargo ship having an actual test would be in like 10 years from now, however it seems that with the advancement of China's thorium MSR, it's going to become a reality much sooner than expected.
God I fucking wish we had a real MSR here in the states. Instead we've just got theoretical concepts of MSRs by startups that don't actually have a design approved or completed.
Do we really want liquid radioactive substances in floating across the ocean? Sure these ships are hard to sink, but no ship is unsinkable.
Less bad than the various oil and chemical spills, oh and also mass acidification caused by climate change.
No part of the actual radioactive material is liquid, as thorium reactors are light-water reactors that use standard water as a neutrino moderator and coolant.
If a thorium equipped cargo ship were to sink, all the nuclear material onboard would be contained within the ship. Further, with the immense water pressure present in the deep sea, said pressure would contain any nuclear material and prevent its spread. A benefit that cannot be extended to oil based ships seeing as how oil floats on water, and is incredibly flammable.
Quick correction, this thorium reactor, which is based off of a recently developed Chinese design, is a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR), not a light water reactor.
Their moderator and coolant is molten salt, which expands and contracts due to heat from fission chain reactions.
Thank you for the correction!
I mixed up the MSR design with the other contemporary Chinese breeder design that uses light water.
I love infinite energy
When China has so many breakthrough forms of power generation you get confused on which marvel of engineering you are talking about.
"You hear about the computer in China's R&D?"
"The bismuth, the carbon nanotube ternary, or the fucking analog?"
"or the one modeled after a human brain that's like 1000 times faster and uses 10 times less energy?"
I really think a USSR situation is going to happen here in the US and west as a whole.
As China continues to out perform the capitlist world and the global south shifts their relations, the west will be isolated and new generations of its population will eventually long for the progress of the socialist world.
That is if you don't end the world in a fire ball first.
I think it's gonna be more of a 1930s-40s Germany direction. They will see things from China and just call it propaganda or scream it's only because they use slave labor and/or have no rights or something.
They already do that.
The west is going to collapse soon, because increasing fascism will cause them to attack PRC & Russia at the same time and then eat dirt.
The same argument could be used about oil based cargo ships. Honestly it's argueable that oil fuel spilling into n ecosystem might be worst for the environment and public health.
Oil fueled ships ARE worse and less safe. The amount of fail-safes on nuclear powered generation now is crazy. An oil fueled ship is just a big tank waiting to be ruptured.
Not to mention, there are tons of nuclear powered ships and submarines. They make is sound like this isn't a thing that's been out there for decades. They have. The only difference is they haven't been thorium reactors.