This article deserves a bunch of credit for reasonably clearly articulating the distinction between thorium-powered molten salt reactors (the kind the Chinese p

This article deserves a bunch of credit for reasonably clearly articulating the distinction between thorium-powered molten salt reactors (the kind the Chinese program eventually aims for, and that groups like Flibe in the states want to build) and thorium-powered pressurized water reactors (like what India is going for). Lots of the amateur enthusiasm for thorium power glosses over the distinction, and while some of the benefits of thorium apply equally to both (like proliferation resistance), others (like many of the purported safety benefits) apply only to the MSR configuration, largely because it runs at atmospheric pressure. The downside of the MSR configuration is that it's way harder to build, and involves some maybe-not-entirely-solved problems around corrosion resistance, since the salts in question tend to be pretty reactive.