Construction of World’s First High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor Begins in China

Last week, China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration granted a permit for the Shandong province modular nuclear power plant project to proceed to construction. This will be the world’s first commercial demonstration plant for a high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) using pebble bed technology, which technology was developed in Germany. The German 300-MW demo plant at the Juelich nuclear research center operated from 1985-1988, and a similar U.S. HTGR project at Fort St. Vrain in Colorado was built. Both were discontinued during the heyday of anti-nuclear political sabotage in the 1980s. South Africa, the only other nation to work on pebble bed technology, cancelled its program in 2010.

HTGR technology development has been underway at Beijing’s Tsinghua University, which is investing 20% of the projected $478 million cost. The first two small modules are expected to come on line in 2016. Together, they will produce 210 MW of electricity, and are to be the first set of what will later be 18 HTGR modules at the site, comprising 3,800 MW of electric capacity.

High-temperature gas-cooled reactors are one example of so-called fourth generation nuclear technologies, which involve using gas turbines rather than steam turbines to create power, which are safer and more efficient. They produce a higher temperature heat, which also improves efficiency, and also enables desalination, chemical processing, and other applications unavailable using today’s water-cooled nuclear reactors.

Schiller Institute delegations led by Helga Zepp-LaRouche visited the Tshinghua University experimental reactor site several times during the 1990s, and this technology was featured in EIR’s 1997 Eurasian Landbridge report.

According to World Nuclear News, the SLG Group in Germany will supply 500,000 graphite-coated fuel spheres by the end of next year for the modules, and Duke Energy in the U.S. will train the nuclear power plant staff.

larouche pac

6 Comments on "Construction of World’s First High-Temperature Nuclear Reactor Begins in China"

BillT on Sun, 23rd Dec 2012 2:30 pm 



Who was it that recently said the Chinese were behind the Us in tech? Fastest super computer and now this. lol.

Hugh Culliton on Sun, 23rd Dec 2012 4:29 pm 



Being a smart Canadian, I’m signing up my kids for Manderin lessons. 🙂

Fiddlerdave on Sun, 23rd Dec 2012 11:42 pm 



The reactor in Ft. St. Vrain, Co was an unmitigated disaster in EVERY way. I was a supporter of nuclear power until I became aware of the failures in that reactor. the stories of blunders are hair raising.

Design, execution, maintenance all were FAILS of unbelievable proportion, and the plant was continually jury rigged to try to manage to supply enough power for a very short time to try be charged off to the customers, instead of being charged to the stockholders like the this failure should have been.

Man, if that’s the future of nuclear power, we are doomed. But let’s see what the Chinese do with it. Maybe their occasional practice of doing firing squads instead of bonuses for failure will produce better results.

Norm on Mon, 24th Dec 2012 12:13 pm 



Its a step in the right direction. The standard water and uranium rod reactor is promoted by the military-industrial-corporate-welfare-bum complex. Its production of power is lousy, its production of toxic waste is huge, and as an added bonus, it blows up (hydrogen build-up) AND it melts down too. However the Uranium pebble bed is exciting because its fairly meltdown proof, and it produces less radioactive waste. The waste is also easier to toss into a cave, since its just funny little radioactive pool balls. HOWEVER even though its progress, the real reactor systems would be THORIUM and as long as your dumb stupid ignorant government keeps feeding all the corporate welfare bums, for status quo, then they will never design the really good one. So at least the Chinese are taking a step in the right direction. Nothing clever about pebble bed, it was analyzed at the dawn of the nuclear age but the military corporations pushed for the water type reactor as it would be superior for
(a) nuclear submarines
(b) production of nuclear bomb fuels.

The water filled reactor, a useless piece of trash that destroys major geographic areas when it melts down, has been with us ever since.

tom on Mon, 24th Dec 2012 7:26 pm 



American military is about protecting the rich peoples wealth, not freedom.But HOW do you get the populace to understand this?

Kenz300 on Wed, 26th Dec 2012 6:55 am 



Fukishima and Chernobyl have shown us what this experiment with nuclear energy can bring.

Both are still disasters with costs that will continue for decades to come.

We have not yet begun to pay the costs to dismantle and store the waste from reactors that are nearing their end of useful lives.

Nuclear power is too dangerous and too costly.

It is time to transition to safe, clean alternative energy sources.