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4th generation reactors
Published on January 8 2018
The US budget funding agreement reached for fiscal year 2017 provides the Department of Energy with more than $1 billion for nuclear energy programs and research, including nearly $500 million for R&D, an increase of $30 million, according to the Nuclear Energy Institute.
11/2013 : Rules, lack of funding make it hard to try new systems in US
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With fewer constraints and a burning need for more energy, China is pushing ahead with new power stations, not only in nuclear, but any technology that could help to meet demand, about 6% increase a year. In 2016, nuclear accounted for 3.56% of China’s electricity production, while global average is about 16%.
China has now the world’s most aggressive reactor construction plan, with the goal of boosting its nuclear power capacity by about 70% to 58 gigawatts by 2020, 111 GW in 2030 and 145 GW in 2040. Both Areva SA and Westinghouse are slated to turn on their current-generation nuclear reactors in 2018 in China.
China invests a lot on advanced reactor designs that may make use of the spent uranium from current reactors, and the growing stockpiles of thorium. Several Generation IV designs aim to cut construction costs by using coolants that work at atmospheric pressure, that will reduce the need for massive containment structures. Many recycle their fuel, reducing the need for uranium, and in some cases are fail-safe without intervention if something goes wrong. Coolants under test include liquid sodium, gases and molten metal. Some use thorium instead of uranium to power the reaction.
Meanwhile, China intends for its nuclear power industry to go global, and has ambitions to sell 30 of its third-generation large nuclear power unit, the Hualong, by 2030 to countries involved with the Belt and Road Initiative.
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Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
Supercritical-water-cooled Reactor
06/2016 : China has completed the basic technology research and published a development roadmap for a Generation IV demonstration supercritical-water-cooled reactor : engineering research and development from 2017-2021, construction from 2019 -2023, and commissioning between 2022 and 2025. The Nuclear Power Institute of China said the SCR-1000 reactor block will have a capacity of about 1,000 megawatts.
Lead-cooled Fast Reactor
10/2017 : Owned by Chinese Academy of Sciences Guangzhou Branch to be built in Huizhou with target completion date 12/2023.
Gas-cooled Fast Reactor
Work began on the demonstration HTR-PM unit in December 2012. China Huaneng is leading the construction of the units together with China Nuclear Engineering Corporation (CNEC) and Tsinghua University. In 07/2017 the thermal hydraulic parameters of the steam generator were validated.
At the construction site in Shandong province, the steam generators and reactor vessel are in final installation. Outstanding work includes final testing of the steam generator which transfers heat from helium coolant to a water/steam loop.
The demonstration HTR-PM is expected to be connected to the grid and start electricity generation in 04/2018. It is a design of two pebble-bed reactors cooled by helium produce 250 MWt each and drive one steam turbine to produce 210 MWe net. It can be configured for varying ratios of electricity and heat.
Sodium-cooled Fast Reactor
CNNC announces it has broken ground an poured first concrete for a 600 MWe fast reactor in Fujian province. It is scheduled to be complete by 2023. The CFR-600 is based on a 65 MWe experimental unit which achieved criticality in 2010 and was connected to the grid in 2011. It was developed by the Chinese Institute of Atomic Energy and will use a sodium cooled system. It will be powered by MOX fuel and will have two coolant loops producing steam at 480C.
There are plans to build a 1000-1200 MWe design that will use a uranium alloy metal fuel. Construction of that unit could start in 2028. Both designs have active and passive shutdown systems and passive decay heat removal.
Thorium-based Molten-salt Reactor
The Chinese Academy of Sciences has announced plans to invest $3 billion in development of Thorium-Breeding Molten Salt Reactor (solid and liquid) . A first order objective is reported to be the kickoff of design and development of a first of a kind 100MW thorium molten salt reactor in 2020 in the city of Wuwei in Gansu province. Commercial development is targeted for the early 2030s.
Traveling Wave Reactor
11/2017 : China National Nuclear Power Co entered into a joint venture to build and operate one in Hebei province, designed by TerraPower, whose chairman is Bill Gates. TerraPower’s traveling-wave design is based on research by Saveli Feinberg, a physicist who first proposed it in the 1950s. Advancements in computing in the last decade have revolutionized the ability to develop these technologies.
Sodium Salt-cooled High-temperature Reactor
The Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) signed a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) for developmental work on the use of lithium-beryllium-fluoride salts as a coolant and heat transfer medium. The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) is a collaborator on the project.
The Chinese Academy of Science’s (CAS) Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics (SINAP) and the US Department of Energy’s (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to accelerate the development of fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors (FHRs). The CRADA evolved from US–China interactions under a Memorandum of Understanding between the DOE and the CAS on Cooperation in Nuclear Energy Sciences and Technologies.
The CRADA is organized into a series of phases. The approved first phase tasks are 1) to commission and ORNL’s liquid salt test loop and use it to perform pebble bed heat transfer testing, 2) to perform component evaluation and testing, 3) to provide analysis software support, 4) to develop and participate in international FHR training activities, and 5) technical information exchange on FHR supportive technologies.
The SINAP has two streams of TMSR development – solid fuel (TRISO in pebbles or prisms/blocks) with once-through fuel cycle, and liquid fuel (dissolved in fluoride coolant) with reprocessing and recycle. A third stream of fast reactors to consume actinides from LWRs is planned. The aim is to develop both the thorium fuel cycle and non-electrical applications in a 20-30 year timeframe.
The TMSR-SF stream has only partial utilization of thorium, relying on some breeding as with U-238, and needing fissile uranium input as well. It is optimized for high-temperature based hybrid nuclear energy applications. The TMSR-LF stream claims full closed Th-U fuel cycle with breeding of U-233 and much better sustainability with thorium but greater technical difficulty. It is optimized for utilization of thorium with electrometallurgical pyroprocessing. The Fluorine design is expected to follow the sodium cooled design by about a decade.
Reactor pressure vessels for the demonstration HTR-PM high-temperature gas-cooled reactor unit under construction at Shandong province
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A new Recycled-fuel Plant
05/2017 : Canada’s SNC-Lavalin agreed to build with China National Nuclear Corp and Shanghai Electric Group, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is working with the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics on a salt-cooled system.
The CANDU reactors slated for the Qinshan nuclear site will be powered by reprocessed uranium recycled from conventional reactors, and later, the radioactive element thorium. Pre-construction work would begin in 2019 with targeted operation by 2026. Thorium could be in use in the 2030s.
Floating Nuclear Reactors
China National Nuclear Corp has the goal is to complete the first floating plant this year and to bring it online in 2020s.
China General Nuclear Power, another key player, aims to start building its first offshore nuclear plant this year and to bring it online in 2023. Plants designed for use in offshore oil fields will have a capacity of 50,000kW, and those for islets a capacity of 200,000kW.
China Shipbuilding Industry, on the other hand, is focusing on smaller facilities ranging from 25,000kW to 100,000kW in capacity, and is looking to begin operating plants around 2020.
Neighbourhood Nuclear Heating
CNNC has been experimenting with a neighbourhood nuclear power plant the size of an swimming pool designed to provide heating for about 200,000 homes. The mini-reactors will cost an estimated $225 million to build and can be fabricated off-site and delivered by lorry.
A 400-megawatt low-pressure ‘Yanlong’ small modular reactor (SMR) has been heating CNNC’s buildings for about three years, and it has just run a 168-hour trial of district heating in Beijing.
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