Vienna team builds thorium nuclear clock running over 24 hours

Technology Oct 11, 2026

A team in Vienna has built a new kind of clock that uses thorium nuclei instead of electrons, making it much less affected by outside conditions.

This nuclear clock can run solo for more than 24 hours without intervention and could end up being even more accurate than today's best atomic clocks.

Professor Thorsten Schumm's team proves concept

The big breakthrough came when Professor Thorsten Schumm's team at TU Wien used lasers to excite thorium nuclei, proving the idea works.

While it isn't quite as precise as top optical atomic clocks yet, better lasers and improved crystals should change that.

If all goes well, nuclear clocks might set a whole new standard for keeping time and open up cool possibilities for future science.