> Thorium is about twice as abundant as Uranium

China has thorium, and while less than others [1], it’s better than they do with uranium [2].

> it may be possible to make truly price-competitive MSR electricity with the right modular design

Yes. But probably not in the near term with thorium. This isn’t designed to be cheaper. It’s designed to be more available to China than being dependent on Russian deposits.

[1] https://www.nature.com/articles/492031a

[2] https://www-pub.iaea.org/MTCD/Publications/PDF/Pub1800.pdf