[3] Following up on the previous article on the Japanese Thorium program [4] here is what Chubu Electric Power [5] wrote to Smart Planet [6].
"Thank you for contacting us concerning thorium molten salt reactors.
We announced our plan of stepped-up efforts for nuclear R&D on May 31st.
Our plan consists of two parts;１．We will establish "Nuclear Safety R&D Center" at Hamaoka nuclear power station
on July 1st to promote R&D using Nuclear Power plants as R&D fields.２．Regarding R&D subjects which need broad cooperation between external
institutions, we will promote and implement joint research and publicly offered
research with institutes and universities. Subjects of research will include
future nuclear energy like thorium rectors. This program will start in 2013. Our
main activity will be to support institutions and universities financially.
We consider thorium as one of future possible energy resources, but there are
many challenges to be solved toward actual utilization. Therefore we considered
basic studies to be very important from a long-term view point and decided to
support institutions' basic study on thorium utilization.Regards, Chubu Electric Power Co., Inc. June 7 2012"