Small nuclear reactors based on entirely different designs from today’s nuclear technology could help the U.S. secure a clean and independent energy and economic future, a former two-term congressman, Navy admiral and senatorial candidate said here.

Reactors that use liquid thorium fuel - rather than today’s solid uranium - would be valuable sources of clean industrial heat as well as generating electricity, Pennsylvania Democrat Joe Sestak told the Thorium Energy Alliance Conference earlier this month.

Liquid thorium reactors - also known as thorium molten salt reactors - operate at much higher temperatures than conventional reactors. They could provide CO2-free heat for the high-temperature industrial processes fed today by CO2-emitting fossil fuel furnaces, Sestak said.

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