What is real thorium?

Many reactors carry “thorium” in their name or pitch but run on uranium today. “Molten salt” and “thorium” are not the same: the salt can be the fuel (a true thorium MSR), it can cool solid fuel, or it can only store heat. This map shows who actually runs on thorium.

Only a handful sit in the true-thorium cell — including China’s TMSR-LF1 (the only operating one), Copenhagen Atomics, Thorizon and Flibe. The rest use salt somewhere in the design, but uranium as fuel.