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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11China’s Wuwei thorium molten-salt reactor is already operating as an experimental research reactor: it reached first criticality in October 2023, full power in June 2024, and was loaded with thorium later that year. In November 2025, the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) reported that the reactor had achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion. That is a research milestone—not evidence that a commercial thorium power plant is generating electricity.
What is China’s Wuwei thorium reactor?
The facility is the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor (TMSR) at Wuwei in Gansu province. Led by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) under CAS, it is a liquid-fueled experimental reactor with a stated thermal power of 2 megawatts (MWt). SINAP describes it as a research project, not a commercial electricity-generating plant. SINAP’s project report
“Molten salt” describes the reactor system, and this particular design uses liquid fuel. The label “thorium reactor” does not mean thorium alone is directly fissile: the milestone CAS reported was conversion from thorium to uranium fuel after thorium was loaded. CAS’s 4 November 2025 announcement
Is China’s thorium reactor operational?
It has reached operational milestones as an experiment. SINAP’s timeline records first criticality on 11 October 2023 and first full-power operation on 17 June 2024, when the institute reported an outlet temperature of 650°C. The project then received experimental authorization for thorium loading on 20 September 2024, and thorium loading was completed in October 2024. SINAP’s milestone timeline The World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2025 independently records the first-criticality date. World Nuclear Industry Status Report 2025
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These dates clarify the misleading implication that the Wuwei reactor is still being completed. The available project reporting does not identify a separate, dated construction event that explains “finishing touches”; the documented milestones show it had already reached full power in 2024.
What has the reactor actually achieved with thorium?
In November 2025, CAS said the reactor achieved thorium-to-uranium fuel conversion and produced experimental data after thorium loading. CAS’s announcement The significance is that the project reported a fuel-cycle result in an operating experimental reactor, rather than merely describing a future concept.
CAS characterized Wuwei as the only operational molten-salt reactor then loaded with thorium. That is a time-sensitive claim about molten-salt reactors, not an unqualified claim that China has the world’s only thorium reactor of any design. The report does not establish commercial fuel breeding, net energy production, electricity supplied to the grid, or complete deployment of a thorium fuel cycle.
What does the 2 MWt figure mean?
The reactor’s stated 2 MWt is thermal power: heat produced by the reactor, not a stated amount of electric power delivered to customers. SINAP reports the 650°C outlet temperature at first full-power operation, but the cited project material does not give a commercial electricity-output figure. SINAP’s project report
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What comes next?
SINAP gives a 100-MWt demonstration-project goal for 2035. That is a future target, not the current capacity of the Wuwei experiment or a completed deployment. The institute also identifies prospective links to industrial heat, high-temperature molten-salt energy storage, hydrogen production, and chemical processing; these are potential applications, not services already shown to be operating. SINAP’s project report
SINAP says the program brought together nearly 100 domestic research institutions, universities and industrial companies. Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, CAS Participation at that scale indicates a broad research effort, but it does not by itself demonstrate that the technology is commercially ready.
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