Nuclear Reactors 663 -China General Nuclear Power Group Just Requested Bids To Construct a Large Nuclear-Powered Vessel

Nuclear Reactors 663 -China General Nuclear Power Group Just Requested Bids To Construct a Large Nuclear-Powered Vessel

        China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) has just put out a request for bids to construct a nuclear powered vessel that will be about five hundred feet long, about a hundred feet wide and about sixty feet in depth with a displacement of about thirty thousand tons. In the request for bids, the ship is described as “experimental.”
        China does not have any nuclear power surface ships, but it does have nuclear-powered submarines. There are plans to build nuclear aircraft carriers for the Chinese navy but the specifications for the new “experimental” vessel are small for an aircraft carrier. That having been said, such a ship would be helpful in the ultimate development of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers. The bids had to be submitted by today and no companies outside China were allowed to apply.
       The new ship will be powered by two twenty-five megawatt compact pressurized water reactors. The two reactors will drive the ship at a maximum speed of about twelve knots. An analyst based in Hong Kong said that the specifications for the new Chinese ship were close to those for a nuclear-powered Russian icebreaker.
        Russia is the only country in the world that operates a fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers. It currently has two classes of icebreakers in service. One of them is the Taymyr-class which has a displacement of about twenty-one thousand tons and the other is the Artika-class with a displacement of thirty-three thousand five hundred tons. Both classes are about five hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide. This is very close to the length and width of the new Chinese ship. A larger class of Russian icebreakers is under construction which will be about five hundred and seventy feet long and about a hundred and twelve feet wide.
       In June of 2018, the Chinese-owned China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) put out a request for bids for a nuclear-powered icebreaker that will be powered by small floating modular reactors.
       China intends to expand its operations in the Arctic Ocean and this will require powerful icebreakers. Last year, China launched its first domestically constructed icebreaker with conventional non-nuclear engines. It is called the Xuelong 2. It was constructed in order to boost China’s capability for polar research and expeditions. The Xuelong 2 will enter service later this year.
       China seems to be following the same path to nuclear aircraft carriers that was taken by Russia when it developed nuclear aircraft carriers. The Russians constructed and operated five nuclear icebreakers before starting the construction of the first Russian nuclear aircraft carrier called the Ulyanovsk. Although the Ulyanovsk was never completed, the Russians did go on to build nuclear aircraft carriers.
        The Chinese currently operate two non-nuclear aircraft carriers. The Liaoning is a Soviet Kuznetsov-class vessel that was purchased from Ukraine. The other Chinese aircraft carrier is called the Type 001A. It was constructed based on the design of the Liaoning and will be commissioned in the near future.
       Besides icebreakers and aircraft carriers, nuclear reactors can be used to power other big surface vessels including cargo ships, science survey ships and tracking vessels such as the Yaunwang-class ships. These ships are sent out by China to track satellites, transmit space communications and monitor intercontinental missile launches.