[wordup] China to pioneer ‘pebble bed’ N-reactor

[Adam Shand]

I think this is actually a good thing, or at least I hope it is.

Adam.

Via: http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/08/184232
From: http://news.ft.com/cms/s/cf6dc8d2-7937-11d9-89c5-00000e2511c8.html

China to pioneer ‘pebble bed’ N-reactor
By Mure Dickie in Beijing
Published: February 7 2005 18:43 | Last updated: February 7 2005 18:43

China is poised to develop the world's first commercially operated 
“pebble bed” nuclear reactor after a Chinese energy consortium chose a 
site in the eastern province of Shandong to build a 195MW gas-cooled 
power plant.

An official representing the consortium, led by Huaneng, one of China's 
biggest power producers, said the proposed reactor could start 
producing electricity within five years.

If successfully commercialised, the pebble bed reactor would be the 
first radically new reactor design for several decades. It would push 
China to the forefront of development of a technology that researchers 
claim offers a new “meltdown-proof” alternative to standard 
water-cooled nuclear power stations.

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors have for decades offered the 
theoretical promise of cheap, safe and easily scalable nuclear power 
and China’s bold try at making them work will be closely watched.

China and South Africa have led efforts to develop “pebble bed” 
reactors, so called because they are fuelled by small graphite spheres 
the size of billiard balls, with uranium cores. The reactor's 
proponents say its small core and the dispersal of its fuel among 
hundreds of thousands of spheres prevents a meltdown.

Advocates of “modular” pebble bed reactors argue they offer the hope of 
cheap, safe and easily expandable nuclear power stations a potent 
appeal for China, which is struggling to meet huge growth in energy 
demand while avoiding environmental disaster.

Pebble bed reactors are small, which suits remote and rural areas and 
makes them easy to expand.

The reactor's supporters also argue that the technology is secure from 
proliferation. The low-enriched uranium fuel consists of 
half-millimetre-sized particles of uranium dioxide encased in graphite 
and silicon carbide, which in turn is encased in a graphite ball. 
Experts say it is expensive and difficult to process such spent fuel. 
Plans for a rival pilot plant near Cape Town, developed by Eskom, the 
South African power utility, US-based Exelon and British Nuclear Fuels, 
have been stalled by environmental challenges.

The Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Beijing's 
Tsinghua University, which has links with the Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, operates the world's only test pebble bed reactor 
outside Beijing and is providing the technology for the planned power 
station.

The Chinese consortium, which includes Huaneng, Tsinghua and China 
Nuclear Engineering and Construction (CNEC), has identified the city of 
Weihai on Shandong's northeastern coast as their preferred site for the 
plant and is preparing to apply for government approval.

Huaneng, one of China's biggest electricity generators, plans to take a 
50 per cent stake in the joint venture that will build the plant. CNEC 
would own 35 per cent and Tsinghua 5 per cent. The remaining 10 per 
cent may be offered to other investors.

South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki had said his country was seeking 
co-operation with China for the development of the nuclear technology. 
The Eskom-led joint venture was hoping to build its test commercial 
pebble bed reactor within 10 years.