I’ve read quite a bit of positive info on thorium salt reactors. They’ve been around for decades. There has to be some serious drawbacks. I’ve read none (major). Nuclear energy is worldwide, someone should have had to taken that route by now. Strange. I feel I’m missing something regarding the drawbacks of an operational system.
Two big drawbacks - engineering for molten-metal-coolant reactors of any kind is a b*tch, and (IIRC) there is no reprocessing.
Neither one is insurmountable, but the other thing is that without the uranium cycle reactors, you cannot make nuclear weapons.
I am with you on that. I have been scratching my head.
Our orginal plants were designed to produce energy and also plutonium for nuclear weapons. If we just wanted energy, the thorium salt would have been the way to go.