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A comment on China reaches energy milestone by "breeding" uranium from thorium. Parent comment

Re:China reaches energy milestone by "breeding" uranium from... by cryptonector on Sunday November 23, 2025 @11:54AM (#46024985)
With a Uranium-based reactor you need a) a source of enriched Uranium (see proliferation risks), b) inspectors to check that you're not post-processing fuel rods to extract Plutonium.

With Thorium if the operator country wants to extract the U-233 you think "maybe let them, they won't like it".

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Re:China reaches energy milestone by "breeding" uranium from... by Moldoteck on Sunday November 23, 2025 @04:58PM (#46027753)
With classic pwr rods can't be used for weapons because of parasitic isotopes. At best you need to run the reactor in a specific way that would trigger global attention looking at power fluctuations. And still it'll not be easy afterwards. You can buy enriched uranium from others. With th- I'm not sure but don't you need enriched material anyway to kickstart it?
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