OH for God's sake.

There is no "working model". There never has been a "working model". There are mere proposals about what might happen if a proof of concept model is built.

All that is currently happening is that carpetbaggers are looking to see which government will cough up some subsidy to continue so far utterly unsuccessful research.

The Chinese are closest to building a proof-of-concept model some time this decade. But there's never been a watt of usable power out of a thorium plant and there won't be until the early 2030s at best and only then if everything goes perfectly.

Alan B has fallen for this myth and continues to do so. He's been raving about it for years and the big breakthrough is always gunna happen 'next year'. Back in 2018 we were told that India was gunna build a thorium plant 'next year'.

The technology is complex, dangerous and unproven. Don't expect to see anything useful for at least another decade, if ever.

Mhaze, The technology is simple, just mix U233 with Th and away it goes. That is the theory. To my knowledge, the Indians amongst others have been baffled by what I might describe as metallurgical problems since the 1960s and it seems to be a never ending story. I wish the Indonesians luck, but I too am very sceptical. I think we will have to rely on proven up to date technology into the very near future and we had better start doing something about it very soon before the greenies run us out of electricity.
David

VK3AUU,

Theoretically its simple. In practice its, currently, a disaster waiting to happen. The US built an " experimental molten salt reactor" in the 1960s. It ran for a few years but after it was closed down, the side effects of the reactions were realised and the decommissioning was a nightmare. See here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten-Salt_Reactor_Experiment#Decommissioning

It might eventually work but not this decade or probably next.

Meanwhile, we've got plenty of coal.