Swiss startup believes this forgotten element is the key to safe nuclear energy

Nuclear energy is undergoing a renaissance. Across Europe, governments are pouring huge amounts of money into new power plants while startups are busily working on smaller, modular alternatives.  Most of these plants rely on uranium, the radioactive metal that fuelled the atomic age (and contributed to a couple of catastrophic meltdowns). However, Swiss startup Transmutex wants to reinvent nuclear energy using a lesser-known element called thorium.  Uranium’s forgotten cousin Thorium is a lead-like metal that is mildly reactive, but four times more abundant than uranium and a lot safer to handle. However, thorium is a fissionable material but not a…

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