Posted on 02/08/2005 5:22:51 AM PST by Woodworker
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.
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.
That's because they don't want safe nuclear power, they don't want ANY nuclear power. If one could find the Holy Grail of Nuclear power, fusion, they would be against it......
Chernobyl was a graphite fire accident with nuclear material involved in the burning graphite. Combining nuclear fuel with burnable graphite seems like a bad idea to me. But I am not a nuclear engineer...
The Pebble Bed Reactor is the most promising form of nuclear reactor until the fusion reactor is developed.
It is inherently safe (impossible to meltdown, proliferation is very difficult), but its biggest advantage is its modular design. A small utility can start with a small unit, and add on as demand increases.
Fortunately for the United States, the coolant is helium. Almost all of the world's helium comes from wells in Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas.
PS. In China do they call it a meltown an "America Syndrome"?
Let's wait for them to finish it, and then STEAL the technology, they owe us a few.
Both are Excellent points. ..And We have the Helium, "WHAT! The Klintoons sold THAT to the ChiComs, too! :^)
Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html
Chernobyl was also water cooled. Steam generating cooling pipes going through the graphite moderator. Now I not sure about the graphite form of carbon, but if you pass steam over at least amorphous carbon (such as coke) at an elevated temperature, you get carbon monoxide and hydrogen. Carbon monoxide besides being a toxic pollutant is a low BTU fuel gas. Concentration reaches the LEL (lower explosive limit), all you need is one little spark or other heat source and BOOM (this also applies to methane, propane, any inflammable vapor).
Add to that Chernobly never really had any kind of pressure rated containment.
Of course, a little research by the authors of the article, and they could have included a little tidbit:
One large-scale, 330-megawatt-electrical, HTGR has been built in the United States - the Fort St. Vrain reactor in Colorado. It was a commercial failure and was closed in 1989. It routinely faced operating problems and had a forced outage rate of over 60 percent. Its lifetime capacity factor was only 14.5 percent. Baseload power plants, like nuclear power plants, are normally designed to have capacity factors of 75 percent or more.
http://www.pharmaciaretirees.com/pebble_bed_reactors.htm
describes in great detail the High Temperature Modular Graphite Reactor (HTGR) - also known as the Pebble Bed Reactor.
Mike
I thought this design was created by an American firm, and had been built in South Africa already.
Fort St. Vrain was not a pebble bed reactor, nor was it modular. It was a helium cooled reactor, though.
I believe that it was initially built as a demonstration unit. Commercially, it was a disaster.
the first reactor, gas-cooled as well, is in USA. 1943 when a graphite-moderated, air–cooled, 3.5 MW reactor in Oak Ridge.
The major concepts for high-temperature gas-cooled reactor(HTGR) use prismatic and spherical fuel, repectively. The latter is know as the “pebble-bed “.
Initial HTGR were the Dragon reactor in the U.K., developed in 1959.at the same time,
A german scientist, Dr Rudolf Schulten decided to do something different for the HTGR,this is how "pebble bed " came from, he is considered "father of pebble bed" .
Thanks for the ping! I'm fascinated by the pebble-bed concept.
I think Sir SuziQ's Grandaddy had something to do with the construction of that plant at Oak Ridge.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.