By Jeremiah Josey 7 October 2026
China is turning Thorium from a geological resource into an industrial and engineering programme—and energy for their future. Their researchers have built and operated the world’s first Thorium-loaded Liquid Fission machine, demonstrated Thorium-to-uranium conversion inside an operating system, developed domestic alloys for high-temperature molten-salt service and is in advanced planning for larger demonstration projects.
This is a major advance in Fission technology. It brings together work that is often discussed separately—fuel, reactors, materials, mining and manufacturing—into a national programme with a clear direction: use Chinese science and industry to develop a new generation of Liquid Fission Thorium Burners—for China. China does not intend to export this technology, particularly to the West.
China’s achievement is much more than this single machine in the desert. It is an industrial pathway: from laboratory research, to a working experimental reactor, to demonstration-scale systems, supported by domestic resources and supply chains. And it started decades ago when China first went into rare earth production—because that’s where the Thorium comes from.
From research programme to operating reactor
China’s Thorium Molten Salt Reactor programme began publicly in 2011 under the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Its principal research organisation is the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, or SINAP. The programme has developed reactor designs, fuel-salt expertise, materials, components and the specialist facilities needed to test them.
The flagship experimental system is TMSR-LF1, located near Wuwei in Gansu Province. It is a 2-megawatt-thermal (MWt) liquid-fuel molten-salt machine. It achieved first criticality on 11 October 2023, reached full power in June 2024, and operated with Thorium fuel after Thorium was added in October 2024. In November 2025, Chinese researchers announced the first successful Thorium-to-uranium conversion in an operating molten-salt reactor. This is the first time on Earth that this has happened. Even at Oak Ridge, they processed the Thorium at Savannah River, several hundred miles away—and spent millions of dollars—to make it suitable for fuel at Oak Ridge. China has now just “popped” it in, and it’s working fine, just as the physics says it should.
These are concrete engineering milestones. TMSR-LF1 has moved the Thorium fuel cycle from calculations and laboratory experiments into a working reactor environment. Chinese researchers have been able to examine fuel salt, operate the system at power and collect experimental data from Thorium loaded into the reactor. The achievement gives China an important platform for developing the next stages of its programme.
The burner uses an initial fissile fuel to sustain fission. Just as the Canadians apply a similar principle to U-238 in their CANDU machines.Thorium-232 is fertile: after absorbing a neutron, it transforms through intermediate steps into uranium-233, which burns in the reactor. The Thorium-to-uranium conversion demonstrated at TMSR-LF1 is therefore a major milestone in the fuel cycle, as well as in machine operation.
TMSR-LF1 is a research and technology platform. Its purpose is to prove and study the processes needed for larger systems. It has already done that job at a significant level: it is operating, it has incorporated Thorium and its team has reported conversion data from the Thorium-uranium cycle.
The next stage: larger demonstration systems
SINAP has stated that its next goal is a 100-MWt Thorium molten-salt demonstration project, with demonstration applications targeted by 2035. This is a major planned step up from the 2-MWt experimental reactor. It is intended to carry the programme forward from experimental operation towards larger-scale engineering and industrial use.
Remember, in 1969 at Oak Ridge, once they completed testing their ~8 MW machine—just as China has done now—by 1972 they had designed a 1,000 MWe full-scale commercial machine. They were ready to scale immediately.
Earlier project reporting also described a proposed 60-MWt system designed to produce 10 megawatts of electricity, with a target around 2030. These figures refer to different reported project plans and stages in the development pathway. The central point is that China is moving from a small experimental machine towards larger systems designed to demonstrate practical energy applications.
[IEEE]
The potential uses extend beyond electricity. High-temperature Liquid Fission systems can provide industrial heat, process steam and heat for hydrogen production and other applications. Their high operating temperatures also make them relevant to energy-intensive industries that currently rely on large quantities of fossil-fuel heat. China has identified integration with chemical production, energy storage, hydrogen and other industrial processes as part of the wider TMSR vision.
[cas.cn]
| Development stage | Chinese programme milestone |
|---|---|
| Research and design | Thorium Liquid Fission programme launched in 2011 |
| Experimental machine | TMSR-LF1 reached first criticality in October 2023 |
| Full-power operation | TMSR-LF1 reached 2-MWt full power in June 2024 |
| Thorium operation | Thorium was added to the burner in October 2024 |
| Fuel-cycle progress | Thorium-to-uranium conversion announced in November 2025 |
| Demonstration pathway | SINAP has set a 100-MWt demonstration goal for 2035 |
Liquid Fission Thorium Burners are important
A Liquid Fission Thorium Burner uses molten salt as the reactor’s working fluid. In a liquid-fuel design, Fission fuel is dissolved in the salt, which circulates through the reactor system and carries heat to the next stage of the plant.
That arrangement offers a different engineering pathway from conventional solid-fuel reactors. Liquid-fuel systems can be designed for continuous fuel management—that means total fuel burn up, high-temperature heat production and operation at comparatively low pressure. These features open up possibilities for power generation and industrial heat, including applications in inland regions where there is little water. Liquid Fission Thorium Burners do not need any water.
China’s programme is developing the machine and fuel-cycle technology together. The operating TMSR-LF1 provides a place to test real fuel salt, materials and operating procedures as an integrated system. Its results can inform the larger demonstration projects now being pursued.
China’s Thorium resources: turning mine waste into an asset
China’s resource position gives the programme an additional strategic dimension. Thorium occurs in rare-earth-bearing minerals, including monazite, and can be found in material produced during mining and processing. This means that the country’s established rare-earth industry also provides a long-term Thorium resource.
The most prominent example is Bayan Obo, in Inner Mongolia. Bayan Obo is a major rare-earth, iron and niobium district, and Thorium is present in some of its ores and minerals. Measured quantities of Thorium give an estimated 10,000 years of energy supply from that deposit alone. For decades, mining there has focused on the resources with immediate commercial value. The Thorium associated with the deposit and its waste streams has drawn renewed attention as China develops a practical route for using Thorium in Fission systems.
A national geological survey completed in 2020 identified 233 Thorium-rich regions across China. Reporting on the survey highlighted the potential of Thorium-bearing tailings at Bayan Obo and described an estimate of up to one million tonnes associated with the mining complex. China has ample local energy reserves.
A 2025 [study] of Bayan Obo examined how Thorium occurs across the deposit.
This is a compelling industrial proposition: a material treated as a by-product or residue becoming a feedstock for advanced Fission systems. As China develops its Liquid Fission Thorium Burner technology, the value of characterising and recovering Thorium from its mining and processing streams rises with it.
Geological resources, stored material and usable fuel
China’s “Thorium stockpile” refers to several different things: Thorium-bearing ore in the ground, Thorium in mine tailings, monazite concentrates, separated Thorium compounds or material prepared to a reactor’s fuel specifications. These categories describe different points in the supply chain.
China’s large resource estimates point to the scale of its geological opportunity. The operational reactor programme provides the technology pathway that make those resources useful. Over time, development of separation, conversion and fuel-manufacturing capabilities could connect resource assessments to a domestic fuel supply.
China is combining a large domestic resource potential, decades of rare-earth mining and a programme now demonstrating Thorium conversion in an operating machine.
India and 10,000-tonnes for China
India has substantial Thorium-bearing mineral resources, mainly in monazite-rich coastal sands, and has pursued the development of a Thorium fuel cycle for decades. Between roughly 2002 and 2012, China obtained 10,000 tonnes of Thorium from India, further boosting its reserves.
Rare earths: a long-running connection to Thorium
Thorium and rare-earth production are connected through geology. Most rare-earth ores contain Thorium, and processing them creates Thorium-bearing concentrates. China’s rare-earth industry has operated at scale for decades, generating extensive experience in mining, mineral separation and chemical processing.
This history gives China a valuable industrial base for investigating how Thorium can be recovered from existing mineral streams. It also means that resource assessment can draw on a large, established mining sector rather than starting from scratch with isolated Thorium mines.
The next opportunity is to connect those capabilities more directly to the Chinese Thorium programme: characterise the Thorium-bearing material, develop efficient recovery and refining processes, and build a domestic route from mineral resource to reactor fuel. The more fully this supply chain develops, the more closely China’s rare-earth strengths and advanced Fission programme can reinforce one another.
GH3535: China’s alloy for molten-salt service
A Liquid Fission Thorium Burner depends on materials that can operate for long periods at high temperatures while in contact with molten salts. The reactor’s alloy must retain strength and perform reliably in its intended service. Developing such materials is a core part of building the technology.
The historic reference material for molten fluoride salt systems is Hastelloy N, developed at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in the United States. China’s answer is GH3535, similar to Hastelloy, a nickel-molybdenum-chromium alloy developed for molten-salt reactor applications.
GH3535 was co-developed by the Institute of Metal Research (IMR) and SINAP of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and is produced in China by Fushun Special Steel. It is the Chinese programme’s domestic counterpart to Hastelloy N: an alloy designed for the same broad class of high-temperature molten-fluoride service and integrated into China’s own reactor development and manufacturing base.
This matters strategically as well as technically. A domestic alloy gives China a materials platform that can be manufactured, tested and improved within its own industrial system. It supports the development of reactor components without relying on a foreign alloy supply chain and allows the research programme to tailor materials work to its own reactor designs.
SINAP, UNSW and ANSTO collaboration
The international research collaboration involved SINAP, the University of New South Wales (UNSW) and ANSTO. ANSTO is the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation. The Chinese partner was SINAP.
The collaboration investigated how GH3535 and its welds respond to molten-salt exposure. Researchers examined the alloy’s microstructure and corrosion behaviour after exposure to fluoride salt at high temperature. ANSTO contributed specialist materials research and characterisation, helping the team understand how features such as grain structure and welding influence corrosion performance.
That work adds to the engineering foundation of China’s programme. Reactor materials are evaluated as manufactured and welded components operating in salt under demanding conditions. The SINAP–UNSW–ANSTO collaboration produced knowledge in precisely this area.
GH3535 therefore is part of China’s effort to establish its own molten-salt materials capability: alloy development, industrial production, welding knowledge and international research on performance. Together, these capabilities support China’s ability to design and build Liquid Fission Thorium Burner systems around a domestic technology and manufacturing base.
A national supply chain, not just a burner
China’s TMSR programme draws strength from the way its pieces fit together. SINAP leads research and reactor development. Chinese institutions and manufacturers contribute equipment and materials. Rare-earth mining offers a substantial potential Thorium resource. Domestic alloy production supports reactor construction. Experimental operation supplies a platform for learning and improvement.
That integration is one of the programme’s defining features. A successful advanced Fission industry needs more than a working reactor design. It needs people trained to operate it, qualified materials, chemical-processing expertise, fuel production, testing facilities and industrial partners capable of producing components at scale.
China has stated that the Thorium programme has established a largely domestic technology and industrial chain, and that it intends to work with energy companies to advance engineering application. Its experience operating TMSR-LF1 gives those partners a real technical platform around which to build.
[cas.cn]
What China’s progress means
China has established itself as the first country to operate a molten-salt reactor loaded with Thorium and report successful Thorium-to-uranium conversion in that system. It has a rapidly growing body of practical operating experience, a domestic alloy designed for molten-salt service, a large rare-earth industry and plans to get bigger.
The importance of the programme lies in the combination:
- Burner operation: TMSR-LF1 has reached full power and operated with Thorium.
- Fuel-cycle progress: Researchers have reported Thorium-to-uranium conversion in an operating system.
- Materials capability: China has developed and manufactures GH3535 for molten-salt applications.
- Resource potential: Thorium occurs in domestic deposits and in material associated with rare-earth mining.
- Industrial direction: China is targeting larger demonstration systems and applications beyond electricity.
Each achievement strengthens the next. Reactor operation creates experience. Fuel-cycle research builds on that operation. Materials research supports longer and larger runs. Resource and manufacturing capabilities provide the basis for an industrial supply chain.
China’s Thorium programme is a serious national effort to build a new Fission technology from the ground up. The country has moved from a research commitment in 2011 to an operating Thorium-loaded experimental reactor, published conversion results and a stated pathway towards larger demonstration systems. That is a substantial achievement—and a strong foundation for the next phase of Liquid Fission Thorium Burner development.
More from The Thorium Network on China
Reports on China’s Thorium Program
The following is a selection of informative reports we’ve gathered on China’s Thorium program. It is not exhaustive, but it offers an overview of what is widely regarded as the world’s most advanced, best-staffed, and best-funded Thorium program.
Links and references relevant to China’s Thorium programme
- Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) — China’s lead research institute for the TMSR programme.
https://english.sinap.cas.cn/ - China’s first Thorium-to-uranium conversion announcement — Science and Technology Daily reports the 2025 milestone, the Gansu experimental reactor and the programme’s 2035 demonstration target. (Chinese)
https://www.stdaily.com/web/gdxw/2025-11/01/content\_424807.html - Chinese Academy of Sciences coverage of the conversion milestone — Xinhua’s report on the TMSR-LF1 result and China’s Thorium research programme. (Chinese)
https://www.cas.cn/cm/202511/t20251103\_5087046.shtml - 2026 report on the Thorium-to-uranium result — Xinhua coverage of the achievement’s selection among China’s 2025 top scientific advances. (Chinese)
https://finance.sina.cn/stock/jdts/2026-03-28/detail-inhspwhs1104481.d.html - Development of GH3535 Alloy for the Thorium Molten Salt Reactor — Research paper on the Chinese alloy used in the programme’s molten-salt materials development.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324580866\_Development\_of\_GH3535\_Alloy\_for\_Thorium\_Molten\_Salt\_Reactor - Mark Ho presentation hosted by Nuclear Australia — Background on China’s Thorium molten-salt reactor development.
https://www.nuclearaustralia.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Mark\_Ho\_20210512.pdf - “Research Progress of TMSR Design” — Yang Zou’s 2019 presentation on China’s TMSR design work.
http://samofar.eu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019-TMSR-SAMOFAR%E2%80%94%E2%80%94Yang-ZOU-PDF-version-1.pdf - “Progress of TMSR in China” — Hongjie Xu’s 2018 programme presentation.
https://threeconsulting.com/mt-content/uploads/2021/04/chinatmsr2018.pdf - China’s TMSR research presentation to the Generation IV International Forum — Overview of the Chinese programme and its technical direction.
https://www.gen-4.org/gif/upload/docs/application/pdf/2017-05/03\_hongjie\_xu\_china.pdf - “Update on SINAP TMSR Research” — Research update presented at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory molten-salt reactor workshop.
https://msrworkshop.ornl.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/MSR2016-day1-15-Hongjie-Xu-Update-on-SINAP-TMSR-Research.pdf - “Sensitivity/uncertainty comparison and similarity analysis between TMSR-LF1 and MSR models” — Technical study of the Chinese experimental reactor’s modelling and design validation.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0149197020300482?via%3Dihub - “Burnup optimization of once-through molten salt reactors using enriched uranium and Thorium” — Research on Thorium fuel-cycle performance in molten-salt reactor models.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41365-022-00995-2 - TMSR-LF1 seismic analysis — Engineering study of the experimental reactor’s plant structure.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1155/2024/1672269 - China moves closer to completion of the world’s first Thorium reactor — 2021 background on the experimental reactor’s construction plans; useful as historical context. ans.org
https://www.ans.org/news/article-3091/china-moves-closer-to-completion-of-worlds-first-thorium-reactor/
