The Chinese are big players in lftr reactors. The US currently has 4 companies working on lftr designs —including bill gates — and the canadians have one company working on this. The entry of the Germans should be followed by the Japanese the Russians and the Indians into LFTR designs. Thorium is already being experimented with as a fuel in traditional reactors in Norway.
In the next year this space is going to get a lot more attention worldwide because the promise of LFTR designs is just staggering. To catch the pure vision embodied by lftr designs check out http://www.amazon.com/kindle-store/dp/B0089Z7V6Y.
If greenies really wanted to eradicate pollution, greenhouse gases, etc... they would be cheering on advances in safe new nuclear power generation. Imagine LA getting cheap fresh water from de-salinated saltwater thus freeing up the Owens Valley water for agricultural uses. Same for Sacramento valley, if cheap desalination became feasible, agriculture could still hum along without threatening Delta smelt.
Cheap electricity could also bring back various metal industries. Oregon used to be a big leader in aluminum and exotic alloys until the formerly cheap hydroelectric power became too expensive. Now thousand of jobs that paid VERY well are gone.
With cheap electricity thermal depolymerization of landfills becomes possible. Mine old landfills for metals and then depolymerize the rest to create synthetic oil. Not only do we get rid of old landfills, we get energy and recyclable materials out of the deal.