The Shidaowan nuclear power plant, which features the world’s first fourth-generation reactor, started commercial operations on December 6, China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), one of the project’s developers, said.
“China’s independently developed high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstrator commenced commercial operation,” CNNC said in a statement.
“It signifies that China has completed the world’s first commercially operational modular nuclear power plant with fourth-generation nuclear technology, marking the transition of fourth-generation nuclear technology from experiments to the commercial market.”
Generation IV reactors are considered safer and more efficient.
“The tests confirmed that commercial-scale reactors could be cooled down naturally without emergency core cooling systems for the first time in the world. It is the so-called inherently safe reactor,” Tsinghua University, one of the joint developers of the reactor, said.
Such reactors can produce heat, electricity, and hydrogen and would help China and the world “become carbon neutral,” Zhang Zuoyi, dean of the Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology and chief designer of the Shidaowan reactor project, told South China Morning Post.
The fourth-generation reactor in operation now puts China “ahead of other countries in terms of nuclear technology research and development,” Francois Morin, China director of industry group World Nuclear Association, told The Wall Street Journal.
According to Morin, Western countries are set to launch their fourth-generation nuclear reactors only in the early 2030s.
David Fishman, a China-based senior manager at energy consulting firm Lantau Group, told the Journal that “China is arguably peerless in actually building and commercializing next-generation nuclear power technology.”
Many countries in the West, with the notable exception of Germany, have recognized that nuclear power generation would help them achieve net-zero emission goals.
At the COP28 climate summit currently underway in Dubai, the United States and 21 other countries pledged to triple nuclear energy capacity by 2050, saying incorporating more nuclear power in their energy mix is critical for achieving their net zero goals in the coming decades.
The United States, alongside Britain, France, Canada, Sweden, South Korea, Ghana, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), among others, signed the declaration at the COP28 climate summit.
“The Declaration recognizes the key role of nuclear energy in achieving global net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and keeping the 1.5-degree Celsius goal within reach,” the U.S. Department of State said.
China is not a signatory to that declaration, but it aims to develop more nuclear energy capacities to reduce emissions as its demand for electricity rises.
As of 2020, nuclear energy accounted for 5% of China’s generation mix, which continued to be dominated by coal, per data from the World Nuclear Association.
By 2035, nuclear energy is expected to make up 10% of the electricity generation mix and 18% by 2060, Chinese media quoted the China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA) as saying earlier this year.
As of September 2023, China had 55 nuclear power units in operation with a combined installed capacity of 57 GW, and 24 units under construction with a total installed capacity of 27.8 GW, Xinhua quoted CNEA official Wang Binghua as saying. By 2060, that capacity is expected to jump to 400 GW, the official said.
China is also expected to approve six to eight nuclear power units each year “within the foreseeable future.”
It’s fake. It doesn’t work. They skipped safety procedures. It’s not efficient anyways. It’s not scalable. It wouldn’t work without state funding. State funding is the reason it doesn’t work. Social credit score.
Can’t wait for r/science and r/China to be suddenly populated by Nuclear physicists who can vaguely gesture at this particular model being completely unsafe and just an inefficient money pit made for the unscrupulous Chinese to steal more money and how actually Western stagnation is the best model for reliable and cheap energy
uh uh uh the Asiatic brainpan does not have space to uh imagine atomic particles! here’s why it’s better to leverage private industry to create profit… I mean energy!
We joke about this, but people in real positions of decision-making power actually believe this kind of skull caliper shit about how Asians aren’t capable of the same level of creative thought as Americans. A lot of people literally can’t imagine that the Chinese are developing this tech on their own rather than engaging in industrial espionage.
Many countries in the West, with the notable exception of Germany, have recognized that nuclear power generation would help them achieve net-zero emission goals.
So nuclear reactors - like all thermal power plants - already produce heat that can’t be further turned into electricity. This is sometimes used to heat cities (district heating). For instance, Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant heats 200,000 homes. The only way to produce hydrogen in a sustainable manner is through electrolysis. This requires a boatload of electricity and is the reason why most hydrogen is produced from hydrocarbons instead. However, electrolysis can be done more efficiently at higher temperatures. High temperature nuclear reactors such as this one can use their waste heat and electricity in order to produce relatively cheaper green hydrogen. Only a few high temperature gas cooled reactors have been built, and zero very high temperature ones (over 750°C). I think this is the only currently operating full-scale commercial one (as opposed to research).
Finally, I think this design is suitable for use in inland China. IIRC after Fukushima they canceled inland plants until improved designs were ready.
Maybe we could refine the way we do hydrogen separation than making exclusion zone roulette boxes? Surely there are better ways if the research is put into it.
According to Morin, Western countries are set to launch their fourth-generation nuclear reactors only in the early 2030s.
I remember back in the late '00s when I was told HSR would be here in the '20s. This shit is never going to happen. We’re simply going to outsource everything to China and let them take care of it, while periodically waging our fists and insisting we’ll start a war with them if they don’t get in line.
I have a feeling that in China they somehow are able to push through the permitting issues and environmental reviews (if they have any) that have made new nuclear plants in the US at least so economically difficult that no one wants to back them. Just something about that system of governance that makes projects like this happen…can’t quite put my finger on it. Wait, you’re saying that they probably don’t have a million interested parties that can stop the project at any part of the development? Or maybe the dissent just…doesn’t matter?
According to Morin, Western countries are set to launch their fourth-generation nuclear reactors only in the early 2030s.
We’re already at the point where China is almost a decade ahead in some high tech sectors. That gap doesn’t look like it’s going to start narrowing any time soon.
