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ChinaScience

China’s first floating nuclear reactor may withstand once-in-10,000-years weather event, engineers say

  • Testing at a simulation facility found it could endure hurricane force winds, but its mooring crane would need strengthening
  • The 60-megawatt station is being built to power oil rigs and islands off the east coast in the Bohai Sea

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An artist’s impression of the floating nuclear reactor, which is due to be completed next year. Image: CGN
Stephen Chen
China’s first floating nuclear power station may be able to withstand an extreme, once-in-10,000-years weather event, according to testing by marine engineers.

But they said the ship-like facility’s mooring crane would need strengthening to avoid the entire plant breaking loose if it tried to ride out the storm at a dock.

The 60-megawatt floating reactor is being built to power oil rigs and islands off the east coast of China in the Bohai Sea, an inner sea where the waters are relatively calm.

At an extreme weather simulation facility in Hubei province, marine engineering scientist Kong Fanfu and a team with the Wuhan Second Ship Design and Research Institute put a scaled-down model of the nuclear plant through its paces.

They concluded that the power station should be able to continue producing electricity during winds of more than 37 metres per second – equivalent to hurricane force or the top level on the Beaufort scale.

A model of the floating reactor. It has many safety features but researchers warn that if it capsizes there could be dire consequences. Photo: CGN
A model of the floating reactor. It has many safety features but researchers warn that if it capsizes there could be dire consequences. Photo: CGN

The researchers ramped up the artificial wind speed by more than 50 per cent and added other storm conditions including extremely high waves and strong undercurrents, which rarely happen at the same time.

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