China has the other closely-watched next-generation nuclear project: Tsinghua University’s 10 MW research pebble bed reactor, which began operation in 2000. Based upon the success of that first high temperature reactor design, Rod Adams reported in July 2008 that China has funded a 200 MWe commercial version “HTR-PM”:
The plant, designated as HTR-PM, will be a 200 MWe pebble bed reactor heated steam plant with two reactors, each with a single steam generator (boiler) feeding a single turbine. The plant will be built in Rongchen City on a site large enough to host series of perhaps 10-12 similar plants. In that area of China, there are hundreds of older coal fired power plants generating 50-300 MWe each.
I am a bit more optimistic that China will carry on with their nuclear program – on the assumption that their economy will be in better shape than the OECD countries.
For more optimism (which we can all use):
Aim High! the Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactor initiative
Pebble Bed Reactor blog by retired physicist Robert Hargraves.
Nuclear China — ABC (Australia) video and transcript of two visits to Chinese reactor projects.
China’s 21st-Century Nuclear Energy Plan by Marsha Freeman in Executive Intelligence Review.
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