China nuclear power plants

Government aid will be the key if fuel cell vehicles ever become widespread. GM is pitching the idea of fuel cell cars to the Chinese government as a long-term solution to China s environmental challenges and needs for imported petroleum. Since China may soon lead the world in the construction of state-of-the-art nuclear power plants, it isn t a far leap to see that nation using nuclear power to create hydrogen on a massive scale. 

Chernobyl in what was then the Soviet Union. Regulatory agencies took an even harder line on U.S. nuclear power plants, and the popular movie The China Syndrome highlighted the terrifying possibility of human error and hubris leading to a nuclear power plant meltdown on the California coast. 

In December 2006, Westinghouse, a major maker of nuclear power plants (and owned by Toshiba in Japan), announced a multi-billion dollar deal to sell four new nuclear plants to China. The deal, worth about 5 billion, includes work to be performed by U.S. engineering giant Shaw Group, Inc. AREVA Group also has a deal with China for two reactors and approximately 20 years worth of atomic fuel. Thanks to the nuclear efforts in China and other countries in the Far East, more than 20,000 megawatts of nuclear capacity have come online globally since 2000. 

Small nations with a few nuclear power plants would find it cheaper to lease fuel from the FNFCC than to try to reprocess it themselves. This would constitute a major, realistic, nonproliferation initiative. Candidate nations include the Republic of China, South Korea, the Philippines, Argentina, and Brazil. 

This industry is on the decline due to the peace-time agreements and Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, (CTBT). Under this agreement, enrichment of UF6 is restricted to lower grade U235 for reactor fuel to be used in commercial electric power generation. In North America, there is an antinuclear atmosphere, hence it is less likely to see the expansion or additions of nuclear power plants in the USA. Whereas China, India, and East European countries may require additional nuclear fuel for their fast growing industries and electrification of the rural areas. 

A look at the use of different reactor types demonstrates the dominant role of the LWR line in commercial electricity production. From 428 nuclear power plants operating worldwide in 1996 to produce 363 GW(e) or 17 % of the international electricity supply -plus 62 units under construction to produce 55 more GW(e) - 342 plants are LWRs, 249 PWRs and 93 BWRs, for a total of 311 GW(e) [27]. And the trend to larger power units was observed. Not more than 5 GW(th) of global nuclear power are presently employed to supply hot water and steam, mostly in Canada, China, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine [25]. 

Worldwide, 430 nuclear plants generate about 17% of all electricity. In France, nuclear s share is 79% in Japan it is 28%. Whereas there has not been a new nuclear plant ordered in the United States since 1978, there were 24 nuclear power plants worldwide under construction in 2005 (ElA 2006c). Many countries have ambitious plans to build more plants. China, with just nine plants currently in operation, plans on building as many as 25 new plants by 2025. Given the potential size of the Chinese market, reactor vendors from several countries are actively pursuing Chinese contracts, with the hope that China will use their designs for future plants. 

Kale.R.D. et al - Analysis of failure of Axial Thrust Balancing and Thrust bearing of a small capacity boiler feed pump for a nuclear power plant, IV Asian International Conference on Fluid Machinery, Oct 1993, China. 

In spite of all these difficulties, nuclear power is making a modest comeback as an energy source. Concerns about climate change caused by escalating atmospheric CO2 levels oQo (Section 18.2) have increased support for nuclear power as a major energy source in the future. Increasing demand for power in rapidly developing countries, particularly China, has sparked a rise in construction of new nuclear power plants in those parts of the world. 

One supplier estimates that there may be a potential market for about 48 cogeneration modules of HTR for the Federal Republic of Germany s internal market. In China there are preliminary feasibility studies under way for district heating in North-East China and also for a dual purpose nuclear power plant for the Shanghai Petrochemical Complex. 

Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey and Uruguay. Of these, Argentina, China, Finland and Mexico already have nuclear power plants in the size range... 

Some transitioning countries aspire to achieve complete self-sufficiency in the nuclear power plant and fuel cycle enterprise (e.g., India, China, Iran) others want to exploit selective indigenous competitive advantage in natural resources or industry acumen for specific segments of the enterprise (e g., Brazil, Argentina, Bulgaria) and, finally, some may want to purchase all or most capability from outside sources. 

Table 5 Estimates of installed electro-nuclear power plants from 1985 to 2025 (GWe), excluding U.S.S.R., China and Eastern Europe ... 

In other countries, China at least temporarily suspended all new approvals of nuclear power plants. Germany shut down its oldest nuclear reactors until the safety of continuing to use them could be determined. Throughout Europe nuclear reactors were inspected for safety. 

Figure 14.1 Three stages of China nuclear power development. NPP, nuclear power plant.

Zou Yongping Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant, China... 

CHINA SYNDROME. A term referring to a catastrophic accident in which a nuclear reactor core melts through the containment of a nuclear power plant and metaphorically burns its way downward through the Earth from the United States to China. American physicist Roger S. Boyd claimed to have coined the phrase in the early 1960s while he was working for the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). See also MELTDOWN NUCLEAR PILE. 

The battle over nuclear power waxed hot and heavy for several years, swaying back and forth as incidents unfolded. The publication of the government-sponsored Reactor Safety Study in 1975, which showed that there would be very modest consequences from nearly all reactor accidents, was a positive event. The report concluded that the average number of fatalities from a meltdown would be about 400 and that there might be one meltdown in every 20,000 years of plant operation, or 0.02 deaths per year versus about 25 deaths per year due to air pollution from a coal-burning plant.8 It received little notice outside the scientific community. The movie The China Syndrome (released in 1979), which implied that a reactor meltdown accident would have— not possibly might have—very horrible consequences, was an important negative event. 

As for nuclear power, we are entering an era in which the construction of new nuclear generating plants will accelerate, particularly in China and India. Eventually, new nuclear construction will likely start in the U.S. and other fully-developed economies as well. 

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