ThorCon International
🇺🇸 US · Active
ThorCon is a US-based company developing a graphite-moderated molten salt reactor in which the fuel, uranium tetrafluoride enriched to about 20% mixed with thorium tetrafluoride, is dissolved in the salt. A plant pairs two 250 MWe modules, would be built in a shipyard and floated to site, and is designed to have its reactor vessels replaced every four years. Its first proposed plant is in Indonesia, where the design (TMSR-500, later ThorCon 500) was reviewed in 2019, pre-licensing talks began in 2023 and a site evaluation plan was approved in 2025. No reactor of this type had been built as of April 2025. Its web address, thorconpower.com, now redirects to Fleet Nuclear, a shipyard-built nuclear plant venture whose site does not mention ThorCon; we have found no announcement explaining the change.
- Sector
- Fission
- Technology
- Molten salt reactor
- Role
- Reactor developer
Terms
- Molten salt reactor
- Fuel DISSOLVED in the salt, which in most designs is fuel carrier and coolant at once. Distinct from a salt-cooled reactor with solid fuel; the two are often confused. Moderator, where one is used at all, is a separate design choice from the salt: thermal-spectrum MSRs are typically graphite-moderated, fast-spectrum MSRs carry no moderator.
Designs
| Design | Developer | Approach | Electrical output per unit | Size class | Licensing stage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ThorCon ThorCon 500, TMSR-500 | ThorCon International | Molten salt reactor | 250 MWe planned | Small modular reactor | No milestone recorded |
Related companies
Sources
- Thorconoperator
- ThorCon nuclear reactoraggregator
- Fleet Nuclearunknown