China Discovers 60,000-Year Supply of Thorium

China’s reported discovery of a thorium supply large enough to power the country for roughly 60,000 years has reignited interest in a nuclear fuel that promises low-carbon electricity without the same weaponization pathways as conventional uranium. The claim traces back to a declassified 2020 survey cited by the South China Morning Post, pointing to the Bayan Obu mining complex in Inner Mongolia. The report says mining waste there could yield about 1 million tons of thorium, and it further claims China has identified more than 230 thorium sites—suggesting the country’s total reserves may be far larger than earlier estimates.

Thorium’s appeal rests on nuclear engineering fundamentals. Thorium is more abundant than uranium in Earth’s crust—about three to four times more—so the raw material base is potentially larger. It also cannot be used directly to trigger a chain reaction; reactors must start the process using another element, typically uranium. That requirement matters for proliferation: thorium is “not as readily used for nuclear weapons,” though it is not impossible with effort. The most touted advantage is fuel efficiency. In thorium-based reactor designs, the system can use essentially the entire fuel rather than only a small fraction, meaning more energy can be extracted from the same mass of thorium than from uranium in conventional setups.

The central question is whether the new reserve numbers translate into real-world power. The answer is “maybe,” but the bottleneck is technology, not geology. The thorium route discussed here relies on molten salt reactors, a design that can shut itself down automatically if cooling fails. Yet molten salts have historically been difficult: they are highly corrosive and can degrade materials quickly. Over the past several decades, researchers have tried to solve this with more corrosion-resistant alloys and by adjusting molten salt compositions, but the technology is still described as being in an exploration phase rather than a fully proven industrial standard.

Even if thorium is abundant, reactor design choices determine how much enriched uranium is needed. In pressurized water reactors—the dominant commercial technology—thorium would still require more enriched uranium to sustain the reaction, making it less attractive economically. In contrast, molten salt thorium systems operate in temperature and pressure ranges that improve efficiency and reduce reliance on scarce, expensive enriched uranium. That economic angle is sharpened by the fact that enriched uranium supply has been heavily tied to Russia.

China is already testing the approach. It has run a small thorium reactor for a few years at about 2 megawatts, and plans call for a larger 10-megawatt demonstration reactor with an operational target around 2030. After that, the pathway envisioned is scaling toward small modular reactors on the order of 100 megawatts.

Still, the 60,000-year framing depends on the accuracy and completeness of the underlying survey. The transcript notes that India’s estimated thorium supply is also around 1 million tons, and that China’s higher number may reflect more extensive surveying rather than a fundamentally different geology. Meanwhile, other countries—including the United States and the UK—have pursued thorium and molten salt experiments, but none have yet delivered a broad commercial breakthrough. Until corrosion-resistant materials, reactor durability, and fuel-cycle performance are fully demonstrated, thorium remains promising—but not revolutionary in practice.