This summer, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that China had commissioned its very first molten-salt thorium nuclear reactor.

China, the first country to build this type of reactor outside a study framework, is also planning to use this reactor to develop a huge nuclear reactor container ship, according to the media.

Thorium molten-salt nuclear reactors would be safer, less expensive, cleaner, more compact, produce cheaper electricity than that generated by mineral coal and would not require large quantities of water for cooling, according to studies carried out by Flibe Energy, a company set up to exploit this technology.

Moreover, thorium is much more abundant than uranium and, as a nuclear fuel, would be much less polluting, since it produces less waste, and less risky.

With enough reserves to power the country for 20,000 years, China would have everything to gain from investing in this promising technology.

The container ship currently under construction in Jiangnan could rival the world's largest, with a capacity of around 24,000 containers. Named KUN-24AP, this giant cargo ship could have quite an impact, representing a new way of thinking about clean, zero-emission shipping.

And while we can't yet be certain that this thorium-powered cargo ship will actually see the light of day, it does represent a new way of looking at the use of nuclear power in decarbonising maritime transport.