Song Hong
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Me an engineer explains, the fast reactors are about making nuclear weapon -- very efficiently.
While in terms of engineering, it is safe, seems that US has ban entire world for building it. The modus operandi is always like this ... a minor "accident" happen in Superphenix or Monju and media keep shouting fast reactor is not safe.
Then government will shut it down.
Only Russia has fast reactor because US cannot controls Russia. Now China has it also.
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Fujian province, Changbiao Island may seem small and unremarkable. It is anything but. This is where the China National Nuclear Corp. is building two fast-neutron nuclear breeder reactors, the first of which is slated to connect to the grid in 2023, the second in 2026. So China could start producing weapons-grade plutonium there very soon.
They are called breeder reactors because they produce more nuclear fuel than they consume. According to Chinese authorities, the ones on Changbiao are civilian power reactors, designed to generate 600 megawatts of electricity each, which amounts to a little more than 1 percent of the total capacity of China’s nuclear power sector. But each reactor could also yield up to 200 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium each year, enough for about 50 nuclear warheads—which is making nuclear-arms-control experts in Western countries nervous.
On its own, building a fast breeder reactor is not necessarily a signal that a country intends to produce nuclear weapons, says Jake Hecla, a graduate student in nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. But the reactors slated for Changbiao are viewed with suspicion in the West, particularly after the recent discovery that China is constructing missile-silo fields in three locations.
spectrum.ieee.org
www.neimagazine.com
While in terms of engineering, it is safe, seems that US has ban entire world for building it. The modus operandi is always like this ... a minor "accident" happen in Superphenix or Monju and media keep shouting fast reactor is not safe.
Then government will shut it down.
Only Russia has fast reactor because US cannot controls Russia. Now China has it also.
*********
Fujian province, Changbiao Island may seem small and unremarkable. It is anything but. This is where the China National Nuclear Corp. is building two fast-neutron nuclear breeder reactors, the first of which is slated to connect to the grid in 2023, the second in 2026. So China could start producing weapons-grade plutonium there very soon.
They are called breeder reactors because they produce more nuclear fuel than they consume. According to Chinese authorities, the ones on Changbiao are civilian power reactors, designed to generate 600 megawatts of electricity each, which amounts to a little more than 1 percent of the total capacity of China’s nuclear power sector. But each reactor could also yield up to 200 kilograms of weapons-grade plutonium each year, enough for about 50 nuclear warheads—which is making nuclear-arms-control experts in Western countries nervous.
On its own, building a fast breeder reactor is not necessarily a signal that a country intends to produce nuclear weapons, says Jake Hecla, a graduate student in nuclear engineering at the University of California, Berkeley. But the reactors slated for Changbiao are viewed with suspicion in the West, particularly after the recent discovery that China is constructing missile-silo fields in three locations.
China’s New Breeder Reactors May Produce More Than Just Watts
It’s unclear if this civilian program has other motivations
spectrum.ieee.org
Russia completes fuel deliveries for China’s CFR-600 fast reactor - Nuclear Engineering International
Rosatom’s fuel company Tvel has completed all shipments to China scheduled for 2022 as part of the fulfilment of Russian obligations to supply the initial load of fuel for the CFR-600 fast neutron reactor, China’s flagship...
