The Energy Imperative.
Thorium, industrial heat and the future of American power. Why high-temperature nuclear heat, with a more resilient fuel strategy, is among the most practical ways to strengthen American industrial capacity and reduce energy dependency.
Young Hwang · Co-Founder and CEO, Thorium Atomics Inc.
Request the 2026 edition.
The paper is being revised. Leave your address and we will send the 2026 edition when it is released. Your address is used only to send the document.
When a nation recognizes a strategic domain has become decisive, it can align government, industry and science, then lead.
Six arguments behind the imperative.
The historical case, the technical pathway, fuel security, the industrial thesis, risk factors and national priorities.
Industry runs on heat.
About half of industrial heat is used for high-temperature processes above 400 °C (C2ES, 2021), where cost-competitive clean options are limited. Electrification alone is unlikely to close that gap.
The supply chain sits abroad.
U.S. reactors buy about 92 percent of their uranium from imports, much of it from Canada and other allies, and Russia still supplied about a fifth of U.S. enrichment services in 2024 (EIA).
Designed for LEU+.
Many advanced designs need 15.5 to 19.75 percent enrichment, where new capacity is still being built. The Tesseract TGR is designed for LEU+. LEU+ enrichment up to 10 percent is being introduced by commercial enrichers, and the first U.S. commercial production run was completed in December 2025; the fuel qualification basis is still to be defined.
Thorium at home.
The United States holds about 600,000 tonnes of identified thorium resources (USGS). None is recovered domestically today.
China is moving.
China's thorium molten-salt test reactor reached criticality in October 2023 and was loaded with thorium in October 2024, and construction began in January 2026 on a nuclear plant built to supply steam to a petrochemical base.
Heat and power from one reactor.
One high-temperature reactor can supply process steam up to about 565 °C or firm electricity. Medical isotopes are at most a long-term possibility for its thorium fuel cycle.