Nuclear Reactors 421 - Chinese Nuclear Ambitions Meet Reality - Part One of Two Parts
Part One of Two Parts
I have blogged before about China's nuclear ambitions. They have expressed the intent to build dozens of new reactors in the coming decades. I was at a pro-nuclear presentation last night and one of the presenters said that he heard a rumor that the Chinese wanted to build a thousand new reactors. There is horrible air pollution in China from coal fired power plants and the Chinese are desperate to stop burning coal. They are looking to nuclear technology not only for internal energy needs but also as a major export product for their country. While the government is very supportive of nuclear technology, the Chinese public is not so enthusiastic.
Now it is being reported that China has only started one new nuclear power plant this year. This suggests that their goal of building fifty eight gigawatts of new nuclear power capacity by 2020 might be too ambitious. China currently has about thirty gigawatts of nuclear capacity and another twenty under construction. Considering that it takes up to five years to build a nuclear power plant, at the moment it looks like they will fall at least seven gigawatts short of their 2020 goal.
All of the power plants which started construction between 2008 and 2010 are now online except for six reactors that are being imported from foreign sources. Westinghouse, a subsidiary of Japan's Toshiba, is providing four AP1000 reactors. France's Areva is supplying two European Pressurized Reactors. These six plants are expected to be completed in 2017 which is at least three years behind schedule.
The two Areva EPRs have been delayed by a series of issues involving quality control and project planning. EPR plants which are being built in Finland and France are nine and six years behind schedule. It appears the complexity of the EPR design is making it difficult to construct these new reactors in the time being allocated for that task.
The four AP1000 reactors are being constructed by the China State Nuclear Power Technology Company (SNPTC). This company has never constructed a nuclear reactor before. The projects are running behind schedule partly due to continuing design changes being issued by Westinghouse. They have had serious problems with reactor coolant pumps and the squib valves.
Currently, it appears that China will be the first country to actually complete the construction of the new AP1000 and EPR reactor designs. China will have to create and test new procedures for bringing the plants online and monitoring their operation. The vendors will be involved in the creation of procedures but Chinese regulators will have to approve them. As of 2014 there had been little progress in developing such procedures for the AP1000s and the EPRs.
China will be reluctant to purchase more AP1000s until at least one of the AP1000s under construction is finished and successfully put into service. China has no plans to buy any more EPR reactors. Chinese nuclear technology companies are working on their own gigawatt reactor designs called the ACP1000 and the ACPR1000 which are based on an older reactor design from Areva.
Please read Part Two.
