But countries are now waking up to the benefits of thorium, and it is once again being put to the test in Halden, a small Norwegian town with a population of less than 30,000. Thor Energy, with the help of Britain, the US and Germany, is testing thorium for commercial use. The company loaded its first fuel rods into a test reactor in April as part of a five year radiation programme designed to show the rest of the world what the company already knows: thorium is versatile, safe, and more efficient than uranium.