El Salvador has just taken a small but meaningful step towards building an advanced climate-resilient economy and accelerating next-generation nuclear. The government has decided to explore becoming a nuclear nation through the deployment of thorium-based molten salt reactors, a Gen IV design, thereby leapfrogging traditional nuclear technology.
As reported by Power Magazine, the El Salvador government signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Thorium Energy Alliance to “formally establish the framework for cooperation between Thorium Energy Alliance and the DGEHM to develop a comprehensive and strategic plan to deploy, in an advanced and safe manner, energy generation through thorium-powered reactors and thermal energy storage systems.”
The MOU was negotiated and signed by Daniel Alvarez, El Salvador’s director general of Energy, Hydrocarbons, and Mines (DGEHM) and John Kutsch, executive director of the Thorium Energy Alliance. What is most impressive about this agreement is that, in selecting this path, El Salvador shows that it recognizes the abundant benefits of Gen IV nuclear designs and has decided to assume some of the risk of being an early adopter of an innovative technology perhaps in exchange for being one of the earliest beneficiaries as well.
“This is not just a deep dive into technologies and rollout issues, and a white paper proposal, this is something that El Salvador is dedicated to making happen,” Kutsch said in a presentation given at the signing ceremony.
Learn more at Power Magazine, El Salvador Sets Sights on Joining the ‘Nuclear Power Club,’ by Aaron Larson, Mar 20, 2023.