Lower-cost nuclear reactors, which use Thorium as the major “fuel”, and the molten-salt heat exchange from the core to the power generation portion of the plant, have been a practical way to utilize atomic energy for several decades. Its major disadvantage (and the reason it was not widely adopted years ago) is that fissile material, like Plutonium, cannot be extracted from the “spent” fuel rods, and government entities are interested in building nuclear weapons.
If Iran were interested only in the power generation from nuclear sources, this is the technology they would be pursuing. Their main objective is to build nuclear weapons, and putting them on launch vehicles capable of intercontinental targeting.
And Holdren’s DOE really doesn’t want ANY energy policy to succeed, but Holder and Obola’s White House really DOES want Chinese reactors to succeed .....