China Moving Forward With New Nuclear Technology

"China plans to open 1st 'meltdown-free' nuclear power plant by 2017

The possibility of a meltdown is one of greatest fears of nuclear power, as was witnessed by the fallout following the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters. Even though the Shandong reactor will operate at very high temperatures, its designers say that it will not suffer from any potential meltdowns.

This is because high temperature reactors do not need external cooling systems, such as the sort that failed at Fukushima. It uses helium gas as the heat transfer medium and runs at temperatures up to 950 °C.

The pebble-bed reactor consists of thousands of tiny pebbles of uranium fuel encased in graphite spheres, which are the size of tennis balls. The graphite coating makes sure that the fuel does not break down even if the temperature passes a certain threshold. If this was to happen, the nuclear reactions would slow, thus making the temperature in the reactor cooler, Technology Review reports.

In August, China announced it intended to build a hybrid fusion-fission reactor capable of recycling nuclear waste by 2030, which would make energy production more environmentally-friendly.

Researchers believe that hybrid reactors will be able to generate twice as much electricity as current reactors. These reactors are also believed to be safer as they can be immediately halted by cutting the external power supply."

https://www.rt.com/news/332254-china-meltdown-free-reactor/