China looks to nuclear option to end winter worries
Officials hope to win public support for use of small reactors as reliable, non-polluting source of power
With its smog-prone north desperate to slash coal consumption, China is looking to deploy nuclear power to provide reliable winter heating, raising public safety concerns – even though developers say the risks are minimal.
State-owned China National Nuclear Corp (CNNC) recently conducted a successful 168-hour trial run in Beijing for a small, dedicated “district heating reactor” (DHR) it has named the “Yanlong”.
With the north facing natural gas shortages as cities switch away from coal, CNNC presented the “DHR-400” as an alternative heat supplier for the region, with each 400-megawatt unit capable of warming 200,000 urban households.
The model – which consists of a reactor core immersed in a water-filled tank around the same volume as an Olympic swimming pool – will require 1.5 billion yuan (US$226.7 million) in investment and take just three years to build, a crucial advantage in a sector plagued by construction delays.
As a small and relatively simple “swimming pool” design, the low-pressure reactor is expected to be safer than conventional models, with temperatures not exceeding 100 degrees Celsius, and it could be plugged directly into existing heating networks.
