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Conference Article: High temperature gas cooled reactors in China

He Jiachen; Qian Jihui (Ministry of Nuclear Industry, Beijing, BJ (China))

Abstract

China has plentiful energy resources, but it is unevenly distributed geographically. 60% of coal resources are concentrated in North China, 71% of hydro-power resources in the hardly accessible Southwest China, whereas the densely populated and highly industrialized 15 provinces/municipalities along the coast, yielding 73% of the gross national product, posses only 10% of national energy resources, which makes our railway system hard pressed. In fact, about 40% of the railway transport and 50% of the main waterway transport are committed to fuel. Yet the needs of energy in the coastal regions cannot be met. To develop nuclear power is a naturally expected approach to solving energy problems in China, particularly in the near term for the coastal regions, where the demand of electricity increases sharply and fuel transport from other regions is already tense. Chinese nuclear circle is interested in MHTGR due to the following reasons. 1. Small capacity of MHTGR is suitable for small power grid in certain areas. 2. Chinese manufacturers are able to provide whole package of conventional island of MHTGR nuclear power plant. 3. Multipurpose MHTGR is attractive for Chinese heavy industries. 4. MHTGR nuclear power plant can be built in suburbs due to inherent safety features. Regarding the users' requirements in China, it can be summarised as: 1. Mature technologies and easy to get license from nuclear safety authority. 2. Emergency zone as small as possible, even unnecessary. 3. 200-300 MWe size desirable. 4. Big portion of domestic share in engineering and component supply. 5. Slightly higher electricity price than coal fired. 6. Investment and favourable financing conditions from overseas. 7. Reimbursement of hard currency by countertrade. At present, four working groups, including users, manufacturers and nuclear industry circle, have been established for performing independent feasibility study on building MHTGR demonstration nuclear power plant in China.

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key words: Gas Cooled Reactor, Nuclear Technology
Reference:
Technical committee meeting on design requirements, operation and maintenance of gas-cooled reactors. San Diego, CA (USA). 21-23 Sep 1988
International Atomic Energy Agency, Vienna (Austria). International Working Group on Gas-Cooled Reactors
IWGGCR--19, pp:35-38