China’s nuclear power has become a force that cannot be ignored in the world energy market. Li Guanxing, chairman of China Nuclear Society and academician of China Academy of Engineering, said recently that nuclear energy has entered a new era of large-scale development in China, and China is becoming the center of nuclear energy development, which has injected strong impetus into the global nuclear energy development. The scale of the units under construction ranks first in the world, and the technical route is "a hundred flowers blossom". Among the three generations of reactors, there are not only AP1000 and EPR imported from abroad, but also Hualong No.1 and CAP1400 independently developed. Among them, the world’s first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project independently developed and built by China has attracted worldwide attention because of its fourth-generation nuclear power safety characteristics.
The world’s first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor
The project is progressing smoothly.
Huaneng Shandong Shidaowan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. is a holding company of China Huaneng Group Corporation, which is jointly built by Huaneng Group, China Nuclear Construction Group and Tsinghua University. Based on the 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled experimental reactor in Tsinghua University, the project plans to build a 200,000 kW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power unit.
As one of the major national science and technology projects, the demonstration project of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plant started construction at the end of 2012 and is still under construction. The reporter saw in Huaneng Shandong Shidaowan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. that office buildings, staff canteens, duty dormitories, training centers, comprehensive warehouses, emergency roads, docks, etc. have been put into use. The reactor building with a height of more than 40 meters stands tall and the nuclear power plant is shaded by trees.
Since the 1960s, Britain, the United States and Germany began to develop high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. Since the mid-1970s, Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear Research has started the research and development of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. At the end of September, 2004, under the auspices of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Tsinghua University Institute of Nuclear Research conducted an inherent safety verification experiment on the 10 MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.
The experimental results show that the reactor can be kept in a safe state without any human and machine intervention under serious accidents, including the loss of all cooling capacity, and the residual heat can be discharged. Professor Kedak, the former president of the American Nuclear Society, spoke highly of this safety experiment: "The technology and safety level of China, a high-temperature gas-cooled experimental reactor, has been at the forefront of the world."
The reactor pressure vessel, the core component of two units of Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant, was installed in 2016. The pressure vessel is about 25 meters high and weighs about 610 tons. It is independently developed and manufactured by Shanghai Electric Nuclear Power Equipment Co., Ltd., which has realized the localization manufacturing of super-large reactor pressure vessel equipment.
According to Mao Wei, Party Secretary and General Manager of Huaneng Shandong Shidaowan Nuclear Power Co., Ltd., the pressure vessels, main helium fans and evaporators of the high temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project are all made in China.
Shidaowan Nuclear Power Plant is located at the easternmost tip of Shandong Peninsula on the eastern coast, with excellent site conditions, stable geological structure, no historical record of tsunami, low surrounding population density, good traffic conditions and water intake conditions, and convenient power outlet. It is one of the excellent coastal sites with large-scale nuclear power base development and construction in China. It is also planned to build six million-kilowatt PWR nuclear power units, with a planned total capacity of more than 8 million kilowatts.
High temperature gas-cooled reactor has attracted international attention.
The position of high temperature gas-cooled reactor in the current nuclear power reactor type can be seen from the following classification.
The first generation (GEN-I) nuclear power plant is an early prototype nuclear power plant, that is, the light water reactor nuclear power plant developed from 1950 to early 1960, such as Shiping Port Pressurized Water Reactor, Dresden Boiling Water Reactor in the United States and Magnox Graphite Gas Cooled Reactor in the United Kingdom.
The second generation (GEN-II) nuclear power plant is a large-scale commercial nuclear power plant developed and built on the basis of the first generation nuclear power plant from late 1960 to early 1990, such as Kandu reactor in Canada and pressurized water reactor in the Soviet Union. At present, most nuclear power plants in the world belong to the second generation.
The third generation (GEN-III) refers to the advanced light water reactor nuclear power plant, that is, the nuclear power plant that started operation from late 1990 to 2010. The third generation nuclear power plants adopt passive safety systems with standardized, optimized design and higher safety, such as advanced boiling water reactors, system 80+,AP1000, EPR and other European pressurized water reactors.
The fourth generation (GEN-Ⅳ) is a nuclear power plant to be developed. Its goal is to reach the practical level by 2030. Its main features are high economy (equivalent to natural gas-fired power plants), good safety, small waste generation and prevention of nuclear proliferation.
According to reports, unlike the pressurized water reactor technology used in the third generation nuclear power plant, the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plant has good inherent safety, which can ensure that the reactor core does not melt and a large amount of radioactivity is released under any accident, thus achieving the nuclear safety goal of the fourth generation nuclear energy system. The system adopts the traditional steam cycle, and the power generation efficiency can reach more than 40%, which is the highest power generation efficiency nuclear reactor at present.
At present, the major nuclear countries in the world are actively developing high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology for power generation and hydrogen production. The American Energy Act of 2005 requires the Department of Energy to develop and demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of using high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology to generate electricity and/or hydrogen by 2021. France’s Famatong Company is also actively carrying out research on high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, and has participated in the bidding for the Idaho high-temperature gas-cooled reactor project in the United States. Japan has built HTTR, a high-temperature engineering experimental research reactor, to study high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology and high-temperature hydrogen production technology. Russia and the United States jointly develop and utilize high-temperature gas-cooled reactors to burn plutonium (Pu). South Africa has carried out the preliminary work of building a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor power station.
Or become an important supplement to that world’s nuclear energy.
With the support of National Energy Administration and relying on the construction of demonstration power stations, Huaneng Group has carried out the research on the commercialization prospect and economy of high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. The preliminary research results show that the high temperature gas-cooled reactor has unique competitive advantages such as inherent safety, simple system, small modularization, high power generation efficiency, wide application channels and strong site adaptability, and has potential economic competitiveness. High temperature gas-cooled reactor is especially suitable for large-scale hydrogen production because of the high outlet temperature of the core. High-temperature gas-cooled reactor can also be used in most application fields of process heat, including coal gasification and liquefaction, direct reduction steelmaking, thermal recovery of heavy oil, oil shale refining and so on.
According to the promotion roadmap, it can be divided into the short-term preparation and start-up stage (the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period) and the medium-term large-scale development stage (2021 — In 2030), the long-term leap-forward development stage (after 2031) takes three steps.
Mao Wei believes that the high-temperature gas-cooled reactor will bring three benefits to China and the world energy:
First, to meet the needs of the country to actively develop nuclear power. Modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor has good inherent safety and high power generation efficiency: the power scale of single modular reactor is small, and power stations of different scales can be formed by combining multiple modules. Flexible in site selection and power grid requirements. In China’s nuclear power market, large-scale PWR nuclear power plants will play a leading role. Modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor nuclear power plant can be used as a supplement to large-scale pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant to meet the strategic needs of the country to actively develop nuclear power.
The second is to meet the country’s future demand for hydrogen production by nuclear energy and high-temperature process heat. With the further increase of oil demand and the decrease of recoverable reserves, it is expected that the international oil price will further increase and the international political and economic struggle around oil supply will further intensify. It is a new field of nuclear energy utilization to provide high-temperature heat source and realize large-scale hydrogen production by using the unique advantage of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor outlet temperature. There is also a demand for high-temperature process heat in thermal recovery of heavy oil, gasification and liquefaction of coal, steelmaking and chemical processes. Modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor technology can be one of the main technologies to meet the country’s future demand for nuclear hydrogen production and high-temperature process heat.
The third is to meet the needs of the country to develop advanced nuclear power technology. There is fierce international competition in the research and development of advanced nuclear power technology. In modular high temperature gas-cooled reactor technology, China has been at the forefront of the world, such as upgrading from experimental reactor technology to commercial reactor technology, thus realizing independent innovation in the field of advanced nuclear power technology. China has signed memorandums of understanding with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and other countries and regions on cooperation in high-temperature gas-cooled reactor projects, and has carried out preliminary work for 600,000 kW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor projects in many provinces and cities in China, so as to promote the commercialization of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor projects.
"The high-temperature gas-cooled reactor demonstration project has the fourth generation safety characteristics, which is of great strategic significance for promoting China’s nuclear energy technology progress, implementing nuclear power going out, and making China move from a nuclear power country to a nuclear power country." Mao Wei said.
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