Chinese Traders Increasing Coal Imports from Russia & Mongolia while Dumping Australian Coal

[GS Zhou]

if some one struck the power plants using cruise missile ? We know what happen during Saudi-Yemen war right ? Yemen fighter use cruise missile/suicide drone to attack Saudi oil facility.

China's Gen-3 new clear reactor: the inner shell is 1.2 meter thick, incl. a 6mm steel sheet; the outer shell is 1.5 meter thick. Strong enough for defend of impact from large aircrafts.

If you are talking about nuclear weapons to hit the nuclear power stations, then it's another story.

http://www.sasac.gov.cn/n4470048/n4470081/n7361946/n7361977/n7361996/n7901942/c7903033/content.html

 

[Daniel808]

On dependent of uranium supply, China is looking into closed nuclear fuel cycle. Which could greatly increase the utilization of the Uranium ore.

And planning for far future of unlimited fuel supply, hopefully China can get Nuclear Fusion working.

Not only that

China also securing their Uranium Supply for decades ahead, until Unlimited fuel Nuclear Fusion ready for commercialization

China Target Commercialization of Unlimited Fuel Nuclear Fusion Energy in 2040

 

[JSCh]

China's Nuclear Fuel Cycle
(Updated August 2020)

• China has become self-sufficient in most aspects of the fuel cycle.
• China aims to produce one-third of its uranium domestically, obtain one-third through foreign equity in mines and joint ventures overseas, and to purchase one-third on the open market.
• China's two major enrichment plants were built under agreements with Russia but much current capacity is indigenous.
• China’s R&D investment in nuclear technologies is very significant, particularly in high-temperature gas-cooled and molten salt-cooled reactors.

China has stated it intends to become self-sufficient not just in nuclear power plant capacity, but also in the production of fuel for those plants. However, the country still relies to some extent on foreign suppliers for all stages of the fuel cycle, from uranium mining through fabrication and reprocessing, but mostly for uranium supply. As China rapidly increases the number of new reactors, it has also initiated a number of domestic projects, often in cooperation with foreign suppliers, to meet its nuclear fuel needs.

....
China's Nuclear Fuel Cycle - World Nuclear Association

Also,

The World's First Batch of HTGR Nuclear Fuel Elements is Shipped
11 Jan 2021 by WorldEnergy

At 9 am on January 9th, the world’s first batch of high-temperature gas-cooled reactor spherical nuclear fuel elements was shipped from China Nuclear North Nuclear Fuel Element Co., Ltd. and shipped to the world’s first Shandong Rongcheng Shidaowan nuclear power plant demonstration project with independent intellectual property rights.

And alternative nuclear fuel, Thorium instead of Uranium.

钍基熔盐实验堆堆本体离线安装启动暨首炉冷却盐出料​

2020/12/23 | 【大 中 小】【打印】【关闭】 | 访问次数：​

2020年12月18日，2MWt液态燃料钍基熔盐实验堆（TMSR-LF1）工程建设取得重要进展：在甘肃省武威园区启动堆本体离线安装，首套工艺设备投入运行并实现首炉冷却盐出料。​

TMSR-LF1为一体式反应堆，由中科院上海应用物理所自主设计，经国家核安全局特许（国核安函﹝2020﹞23号）由上海应用物理所与上海建工集团股份有限公司开展联合安装。TMSR-LF1堆本体是核热产生部分，集成安装堆容器、石墨堆内构件、金属堆内构件及燃料盐回路等核安全级关键设备，是实验堆安装的核心任务。经过各方共同努力，堆本体离线安装所需“人、机、料、法、环”条件满足开工要求， 12月18日正式启动了堆本体离线安装。这是TMSR-LF1工程建设的重要里程碑进展。​

The off-line installation and start-up of the thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor body and the first cooling salt discharge
2020/12/23

On December 18, 2020, the 2MWt liquid fuel thorium-based molten salt experimental reactor (TMSR-LF1) project made important progress: offline installation of the reactor body was started in Wuwei Park, Gansu Province, the first set of process equipment was put into operation and the first cooling salt was realized Discharge.

TMSR-LF1 is an integrated reactor, independently designed by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and licensed by the National Nuclear Safety Administration (National Nuclear Safety Letter ﹝2020﹞ No. 23) to be jointly installed by Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics and Shanghai Construction Engineering Group Co., Ltd. . The main body of the TMSR-LF1 reactor is the nuclear heat generation part, which integrates the installation of nuclear safety-level critical equipment such as the reactor vessel, graphite reactor internals, metal reactor internals, and fuel salt loops. It is the core task of the experimental reactor installation. After the joint efforts of all parties, the "human, machine, material, method, and environment" conditions required for the offline installation of the reactor body met the start-up requirements, and the offline installation of the reactor body was officially launched on December 18. This is an important milestone in the construction of the TMSR-LF1 project.

 

[Paul2]

Chinese traders increasing coal imports from Russia, Mongolia
By GT staff reporters
Published: Jan 12, 2021 11:38 AM

A machine unloads coal imports at a port in Lianyungang, East China’s Jiangsu Province, on December 3, 2016. Photo: CFP

Chinese traders are importing more coal from neighboring countries such as Russia and Mongolia, bringing the security of a healthy supply chain amid the backdrop of global uncertainty and disruption from the epidemic.

Fujian Guohang Ocean Shipping (Group) Co has signed an agreement with Russian coal supplier Elga Coal to set up a joint venture to export coking coal to China. The agreement is expected to escalate the imports of Russian coal by 30 million tons, nearly doubling the total Russian export volume of coal to China from 33 million in 2019, Nikkei reported on January 6.

Chinese coal traders are looking for more cooperation in the north in a bid to diversify supply chains as demand for raw materials is seeing a rising trend amid the production resumption and the cold weather, industry experts said.

As of 2019, China’s top five trading countries for coal are Indonesia, Australia, Russia, Mongolia and the Philippines.

While there may be no big change in structure, there will be some change in share, Zhao Jianguo, secretary-general of China's Coal Transportation Association, told the Global Times on Monday.

Data from industry website cctd.com.cn showed that China imported 75 million tons of coal from Australia in 2019, the same as the previous year, with average monthly imports of 6.31 million tons.

Meanwhile, Chinese suppliers are now diversifying their options in a bid to alleviate the risks from over-dependence on certain sources.

"Now the pattern of coal imports has begun to change. For companies engaged in coal imports, there is also a need to be cautious and balance the impact of certain risks on coal imports,” Guan Dali, an energy analyst at First Futures, told the Global Times.

Last September, Mongolia replaced Australia as the top coking coal supplier to China.

The rise of imports from Mongolia is being facilitated by increased shipping capacity thanks to the launch of the China-Mongolia "green channel" in August, which aims to boost bilateral trade and economic cooperation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

With the joint project between Fujian Guohang Ocean Shipping (Group) Co and Elga Coal, Russia’s coal supplies to China are also seeing a stronger trend.

"It will be a definite trend for China and Russia to find deeper space for cooperation in the energy sector, including coal,” Lin Boqiang, director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, told the Global Times on Monday, noting that companies are also buying more from Russia because they are worried about uncertainty over Australia's policy toward China.

"There is also not much difference in the quality and price between Russian and Australian coal,” said Lin.

Meanwhile, with the tightened sea transport due to the epidemic and other factors, the China-Europe freight train that offers relatively stable capacity and costs is playing a significant role in the sustainability of regional trade, noted Lin.

https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202101/1212532.shtml


Good, more imports for Russian and Mongolian coal. Their coal have very good quality

https://twitter.com/x/status/1348842149727629312

That's silly when we have world's biggest coal reserves.

 

[TaiShang]

solar power is a very nice supplement power resource, but it can never take the role of conventional power plants.

Most of the urban residents in China live in high buildings, e.g. 10 to 20 storey. The roof top based solar panels cannot help them.

Also, it could be said that development of civilian nuclear technology translates into military applications, as well as vice versa.

 

[GS Zhou]

That's silly when we have world's biggest coal reserves.

Most of the coals consumed in China are still from domestic supplies. See the attached news

2020年11月份能源生产情况
来源：国家统计局发布时间：2020-12-15 10:00
　　11月份，规模以上工业原煤、原油、天然气生产保持平稳增长，电力生产明显加快。

　　一、原煤、原油和天然气生产及相关情况

　　原煤生产略有加快。11月份，生产原煤3.5亿吨，同比增长1.5%，增速比上月加快0.1个百分点；日产1158万吨，环比增加72万吨。1—11月份，生产原煤34.8亿吨，同比增长0.4%。

　　煤炭进口降幅有所收窄。11月份，进口煤炭1167万吨，环比减少206万吨，同比下降43.8%，降幅收窄2.5个百分点。1—11月份，进口煤炭2.6亿吨，同比下降10.8%。

http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/zxfb/202012/t20201215_1809251.html