Chinese nuclear momentum

[Donald]

Originally Posted by OVERKILL

After years of partnerships with traditional nuclear vendors such as Westinghouse, SNC-Lavalin (CANDU Energy) Rosamtom and the like, they have, not surprisingly, developed domestic designs that are based on the designs built in these partnerships. They are now looking to build-out, en masse, these units. Link to Asia Times article

Quote

China's southern Guangdong province is on a spree constructing nuclear power plants, with the latest addition to the province's nuclear plant cluster in the city of Huizhou, 90 kilometers northeast of Hong Kong. Six reactors there will generate 50 billion kilowatt-hours per year to quench the province's thirst for electricity. The 120 billion yuan (US$17.74 billion) megaproject, to be run by the state-owned China General Nuclear Power Corp (CGN), will bring the total number of nuclear reactors in Guangdong, a manufacturing powerhouse and China's largest provincial economy, to 26. CGN's ultimate plan is to boost that number to 46, spanning 11 plants, to power Guangdong's booming economy, whose gross domestic product in 2018 is tipped to hit the 10-trillion-yuan mark and surpass South Korea and Canada. The new reactors in Huizhou, already given the go-ahead by China's environmental watchdog, will be built around China's indigenous, third generation Hualong (China Dragon) pressurized water nuclear reactor standards. The total power generation capacity will be equivalent to Hong Kong's annual electricity consumption, according to CGN. China's Hualong reactors are modeled after France's three cooling loop reactor design.

These reactors are 1,090MWe. 46 of them would have an installed capacity of >50GW and produce 408TWh/year. Combined with the existing fleet of 44 reactors at 40.6GW, this would yield a 90.7GW base that could produce 739TWh/year, putting it in 3rd place behind coal and hydro for generation output, which are at 4,000TWh and 1,144TWh respectively. Expected installed capacity is 150GW by 2030, which would usurp hydro with 1,222TWh of output. This is being done with the intention of displacing coal generation.

I would not want to live next to a nuclear power plant built by a Chinese company. There are a lot of newer technology reactor designs. Wonder if they have an old design or a new design. Isn't China also installing millions of solar panels?

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted by Donald

I would not want to live next to a nuclear power plant built by a Chinese company.

I would have concerns myself TBH. But most of their existing plants, as I noted, have been built via partnerships with more traditional vendors.

Originally Posted by Donald

There are a lot of newer technology reactor designs. Wonder if they have an old design or a new design.

These are a new design, based on the French EPR. It's a very safe design, as far as designs go.

Originally Posted by Donald

Isn't China also installing millions of solar panels?

PV in China has a CF of roughly 14%, whereas Nuclear can run at ~93%. Ergo, 200GW of solar would produce 245TWh/year, whilst 200GW of nuclear would produce 1,629TWh. Currently power generation in China is dominated by coal, which produces ~4,000TWh of China's ~6,400TWh annual consumption. In 2016 China had 33GW of Nuclear and 76GW of solar, which produced 213TWh and 66TWh respectively. Their goal is to have 200GW; 1,629TWh of Nuclear by 2030 with the % of supply doubling every 10 years. The 2020 goal for solar is 213GW; 261TWh. If they manage 500GW by 2030 it will produce 613TWh. I'm interested to see how they buffer the high levels of intermittency, which is generally done using gas. The scale of batteries required in this scenario is incredible, if that's the intention.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted by Snagglefoot

That link about the garbage from river was a real eye opener. Seems to me getting rid of poverty is the first priority towards reducing environmental problems.

It is debatable. On one hand people with higher standard of living tends to put trash in the right place, but on the other they generate more and don't scavenge them for recycling money. I've read somewhere that NYC used to have lots of trash dumped in the middle of the street when the local government were bribed and turned a blind eye. Maybe our 3rd world neighbors will one day get better at keeping the trash out when their own real estate valuation is at stake. The problem in China is coal. People die mining them like they do in WV here, and nobody wants to live next to a coal power plant, they'll probably pick a nuke over it. Also at the moment they do not have the military influence to dominate the ocean or completely trust Russia for their oil and NG supply. Yes, they are ok for now but who knows 50-100 years down the road. Nuke is relatively stable.