“In the remote expanse of the Gobi desert stands the first thorium (Th) reactor ever built. Last year, researchers from the Chinese Academy of Sciences showed that this two-megawatt reactor could power up and operate without a glitch, and they have now achieved another first—successfully reloading it while it was still running. Thorium-232 (the isotope of thorium that most commonly occurs on its own) is not capable of undergoing fission by itself. While the fission of Th-232 produces protinactium, which decays into U-233 and can be used in nuclear weapons, U-233 isn’t nearly as explosive as other isotopes (the isotope most commonly used in uranium explosives is U-235). There wouldn’t be much of a point in dealing it to create an illicit nuclear bomb.”From Popular Mechanics.