Chinese scientists makes nuclear power breakthrough using abandoned US research

For the first time ever, scientists in China have refueled an experimental nuclear reactor without shutting it down — a significant advance in weaning the world off fossil fuels and onto more efficient, low-carbon energy sources The breakthrough, achieved using a prototype molten-salt design which runs on liquid thorium instead of uranium, means that China “now leads the global frontier” in nuclear innovation, the project’s lead scientist, Xu Hongjie, said during an April 8 meeting at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Thorium reactors were first developed in the 1950s in the U.S., before it went all-in on uranium, according to…