Storyline: Innovative designs behind enhanced safety of China's thorium molten salt reactor project [Voice_over] An experimental reactor in western China's Gobi desert has achieved a major breakthrough in nuclear energy - the ability to turn thorium into uranium. Scientists from the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics collected data from inside the thorium-based molten salt reactor, or TMSR, that shows thorium-232 continuously captures neutrons and transforms them into uranium-233, creating a self-fueling "burn-while-breeding" cycle. Critically, the entire process takes place inside the reactor core. [Sound_bite] Dai Zhimin, Director, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics: "With heat exchangers inside the reactor, the molten salt coolant never comes out of the reactor body. We also have a safe container outside the reactor body, so there's a multi-layer protection to make sure radioactive materials don't leak." [Voice_over] Scientists said safety is at the heart of the discovery. Molten-salt reactors are fourth-generation advanced nuclear energy systems that use high-temperature molten salt as a coolant instead of water, and that run at atmospheric pressure. That last detail is crucial, scientists say, because it allows the salts to efficiently transfer heat at extreme temperatures removing the risk of ruptures that are common in high-pressure systems. [Sound_bite] Li Qingnuan, Deputy Director, Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics: "Even if there occurs an accident involving the entire reactor, only a very small amount of fission products may be discharged. As the byproducts have already gone through our treatment systems during normal operations, there won't be much leakage of radioactive materials in extreme accidental situations." [Voice_over] China's TMSR program was launched in 2011 and achieved first criticality in 2023. Going forward, China is building a 100-megawatt reactor in the Gobi Desert with an aim of large-scale commercial deployment by 2035. [Restrictions: No access Chinese mainland]