China building nuke plant with fourth-generation features
Xinhua reported that China has broken ground on a CNY 3 billion (USD 476 million) nuclear power project that will be the first in the world to put a reactor with fourth-generation features into commercial use.
A Chinese energy company said that it also marks China's latest move to speed up nuclear power development, which came to a halt after the Fukushima nuclear crisis in Japan in 2011.
Construction of the project at Shidao Bay in the coastal city of Rongcheng, East China's Shandong province, began last month, Xinhua learned from Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Co Ltd, the builder and operator of the plant.
The HSNPC said in a statement that with a designed capacity of 200 megawatts and "the characteristics of fourth-generation nuclear energy systems," the high temperature gas-cooled reactor will start generating power by the end of 2017.
Independently developed by China's Tsinghua University, the reactor has the features of "inherent safety" and "passive nuclear safety" in line with the fourth-generation concept, meaning it can shut down safely in the event of an emergency without causing a reactor core meltdown or massive leakage of radioactive material, according to the statement.
The reactor can have an outlet temperature of 750 degrees Celsius, compared with 1,000 degrees Celsius that can be reached by the very-high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, an internationally-accepted fourth-generation reactor concept.
It can also raise electricity generation efficiency to around 40 percent from the current 30% level of second and third generation reactors, said the statement.
If it is commercially successful, the reactor's technology and equipment can be exported to other countries in the future, said an HSNPC public relations officer who declined to be named.
The official told Xinhua that "That will be a great boost to China's nuclear industry, as a very high percentage of the equipment is produced domestically instead of being imported.”
The project is part of the HSNPC's broader plan to build a 6.6 gigawatt nuclear power plant that will require approximately CNY 100 billion in investment over 20 years. If completed, it would be China's largest nuclear power plant.
The rest of the plan includes four 1.25-GW AP1000 pressurized water reactors and a 1.4-GW CAP1400 pressurized water reactor.
The plan has not yet been approved by regulators.
Source – Xinhua