[Praxeologue]

Why is the U.S. government collaborating with China on developing a molten-salt cooled thorium reactor?

[Sgt_Schultze]

I suspect there is no equivalent to the EPA in china, thus fewer hurdles through which to jump when designing and testing uncertain science projects.

[DoughtyOne]

Interesting. As I understand it the White House is going to use a Thorium back-up system. Currently it’s running on a Delirium Reactor. /s

[Praxeologue]

another comment:

Using Thorium in a conventional solid fuel reactor is akin to trying to use deisel fuel in a conventional gasoline engine. You might be able to make it work... poorly, but seems smarter to use it in a Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor(LFTR).

[PJammers]

Thorium can be extracted from coal. The power generated by the LFTR can be used to transform the leftover coal into synthetic fuel oil and gasoline. Since the US has the largest coal reserves in the world, building LFTRs could completely solve our energy problems.

Oh that’s right, coal is evil...nevermind.

[BitWielder1]

China has the cash (our cash) and less stringent environmental rules. Both our own fault.
Whomever makes this work, we all need cheap, plentiful energy. Clean is an extra bonus.

[jpsb]

Because we owe them a trillion dollars?