This is NOT NEW. The basic reaction chain has been well understood for decades. There are multiple issues to be solved with actually setting up a reactor to deliver power that the article doesn't even consider. Hype.
1962: September 16. The Indian Point-1 nuclear reactor begins operating at Buchanan, New York. Designed and built by Babcock and Wilcox for Consolidated Edison, it is a pressurized water reactor designed to produce 275 MW of electricity. Unlike other pressurized-water reactors, the Indian Point-1 reactor uses highly-enriched uranium as a fuel and thorium as a fertile material. This combination has a superior conversion ratio in a thermal neutron spectrum than low-enrichment uranium (more thorium is bred to uranium-233 than uranium-238 is bred to plutonium-239). The uranium-233 generated in the Indian Point reactor is later processed into a tetrafluoride and used to fuel the Molten-Salt Reactor Experiment.(MSRE)
The MSRE program then successfully operated a reactor with a thorium blanket around the U-233 for the equivalent of an 18 month cycle (same as current reactors.