Alexander Blagov, Vice President of the Kurchatov Institute National Research Center, stated that the compact thermonuclear reactor being developed in Russia — the tokamak with reactor technologies (TRT) — is designed to solve two key tasks: to expand the resource base of the existing nuclear energy and to become a prototype of a thermonuclear neutron source for the thorium fuel cycle.
According to him, the Earth's uranium reserves will last a maximum of 100 years, while thorium — a byproduct of uranium mining — is dozens of times more abundant. With the help of thermonuclear neutrons, Blagov noted, it is possible to convert thorium into uranium-233, which will significantly increase the fuel resources for existing nuclear power plants.
The TRT is being created as part of the national project "New Atomic and Energy Technologies." Research in the field of thermonuclear fusion is coordinated by the Kurchatov Institute and continues in the leading scientific centers of the country, including the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as well as at Rosatom enterprises.
The Kurchatov tokamak remains the largest installation in Russia for experiments on thermonuclear fusion and the only medium-sized divertor tokamak, which will serve as the main experimental platform for the coming decades.