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Beijing wants to cut its reliance on coal-fired power.
The deadline to develop a new design of nuclear power plant has been brought forward by 15 years as the central government tries to reduce the nation’s reliance on smog-producing coal-fired power stations.
A team of scientists in Shanghai had originally been given 25 years to try to develop the world’s first nuclear plant using the radioactive element thorium as fuel rather than uranium, but they have now been told they have 10, the researchers said.
“In the past the government was interested in nuclear power because of the energy shortage. Now they are more interested because of smog,” said Professor Li Zhong, a scientist working on the project.
Premier Li Keqiang told the national legislature in Beijing on March 5 that the government had declared “war on pollution”, and measures to tackle the problem included closing coal-fired power stations. About 70 per cent of China’s electricity was produced by coal-fired plants last year, according to government figures. Nuclear power stations generated just over 1 per cent.
The Chinese Academy of Sciences set up an advanced research centre in Shanghai in January with the aim of developing the world’s first industrial reactor using thorium molten-salt technology, according to a statement from the academy’s Bureau of Major Research and Development Programmes.
All commercial nuclear plants in China, whether in operation or under construction, are designed to use uranium as fuel, but the country has run short of uranium and depends on imports from other countries.
The technology under development in Shanghai involves burning the radioactive element thorium in a salty “soup” to, in theory, release heat many times greater than today’s reactors.
Other potential advantages of the technology are that China has large thorium reserves, at least the world’s third-largest, according to some experts. The process may also produce less radioactive waste.
“The problem of coal has become clear. If the average energy consumption per person doubles, this country will be choked to death by polluted air,” he said. “Nuclear power provides the only solution for massive coal replacement and thorium carries much hope.”
The thorium reactor is not the only technology China is researching in an attempt to upgrade its nuclear power programme.
The Hefei Institute of Physical Science in Anhui province finished construction last month of the world’s largest experimental platform for an accelerator reactor that burns nuclear fuel with a powerful “particle gun”.
An experimental fast reactor is also operating in Beijing, and construction has started of a demonstration plant for a very-high-temperature reactor at Shidao Bay in Shandong province.
Professor Gu Zhongmao, an official at the China Institute of Atomic Energy, said so-called fourth-generation reactors were troubled by technological uncertainties, and to solve the smog issue the central government should approve and start construction of new nuclear power plants using existing technology as soon as possible.
The thorium reactors would need years, if not decades, to overcome the corrosion issue and the stability of accelerator-driven plants was also in doubt, he said.
Smog would be reduced noticeably if nuclear power produced 5 to 10 per cent of the nation’s electricity, according to Gu. China has about 20 nuclear reactors and is building nearly 30 more.
Its use of nuclear power is tiny compared with countries such as France, which produces about 75 per cent of its electricity from nuclear power plants.
“To completely get rid of smog, nuclear power is the only option,” according to Gu.
“If we build as many nuclear power stations as there are in France and Japan, we will also enjoy blue skies and clean air like they do.”
