Third-generation nuclear power technology——
More efficient, cleaner and safer (unwinding to learn new)
Core reading
Each "Hualong No. 1" unit cleanly generates nearly 10 billion kWh per year, which can meet the annual electricity demand for production and life of 1 million people in moderately developed countries; at the same time, it is equivalent to reducing standard coal consumption by 3.12 million tons and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 8.16 million Tons, equivalent to planting 70 million trees
Nuclear power is by far the most complex energy system.
Strengthening and optimizing the nuclear power business can also effectively drive a large number of related high-tech industries upstream and downstream, and promote the development of the country’s high-end major equipment manufacturing industry and related service industries. It will affect dozens of industries such as materials, metallurgy, chemicals, machinery, electronics, and instrument manufacturing. The processing technology and process level have a significant pulling effect
Energy is an important material basis for human survival and development.
From ancient humans using "firewood energy" to the industrial revolution ushering in the "oil and gas era", the history of civilization is also a history of energy utilization.
Traditional fossil energy has played a huge role in the industrialization of human society, but the continuous increase in the use of fossil fuels will emit excessive carbon dioxide and cause damage to the earth's ecology and climate.
For the sustainable development of human society, the international community has gradually reached a consensus: We should reduce our dependence on fossil energy and gradually replace fossil energy with new energy.
A new round of energy replacement is the general trend.
The 2021 "Government Work Report" proposes to actively and orderly develop nuclear power under the premise of ensuring safety.
my country strives to achieve a carbon peak by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. This is a major strategic decision of the Party Central Committee.
To implement this goal, the field of energy supply is an important breakthrough, and nuclear power, which has the lowest carbon emissions among many energy sources, is one of the choices.
Nuclear power: clean energy with high energy density and high stability
As a low-carbon energy source, nuclear energy has the advantages of high energy density, stable baseload power, large stand-alone capacity, small footprint, low long-term operating costs, easy storage of nuclear fuel, and can effectively improve energy self-sufficiency. It is playing a role in the global energy transition. An increasingly important role has become an indispensable and important part of the future clean energy system.
When using nuclear power to generate electricity, the uranium fuel in the nuclear reactor does not burn like oil or natural gas. Instead, it uses the "nuclear fission" phenomenon of atomic energy to obtain thermal energy, and then uses the thermal energy to boil water to produce steam, which drives a steam turbine to generate electricity.
The energy released by nuclear fission of 1 kilogram of uranium 235 is approximately equivalent to 2,700 tons of standard coal or 1,700 tons of crude oil.
A million-kilowatt nuclear power plant requires only 30 tons of supplementary nuclear fuel each year, while a coal-fired unit of the same capacity and scale consumes about 3 million tons of coal each year.
Compared with coal-fired power plants, the cost of transportation fuel for nuclear power plants is almost negligible.
Statistics show that in recent years, nuclear energy has become the main force of clean energy in the world.
In 2019, the total global nuclear power generation capacity reached 2,657 TWh, contributing about one-third of the world's low-carbon electricity.
Studies by international institutions have shown that nuclear power has helped reduce the long-term increase in carbon dioxide emissions in the past half century.
Take "Hualong No. 1" as an example. Each "Hualong No. 1" machine has an assembled capacity of 1.16 million kilowatts and generates nearly 10 billion kilowatt hours of clean power annually, which can meet the annual electricity demand for production and life of 1 million people in moderately developed countries; at the same time, This is equivalent to reducing standard coal consumption by 3.12 million tons, reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 8.16 million tons, and planting 70 million trees.
It is precisely because nuclear power generation has the characteristics of high energy density and high stability unmatched by other energy sources, and the production process is environmentally friendly. At the Ninth World Clean Energy Ministerial Conference in 2018, nuclear power was clearly positioned as a clean energy source, and It is proposed to focus on the use of nuclear power for base-load power (that is, the basic power for stable power supply in the grid) and for the construction of new low-carbon composite energy systems in the future.
"Hualong One": Unique multiple safety guarantees, greatly improving safety and reliability
In the 1950s and 1960s, the first batch of nuclear power plants with a single unit capacity of about 300 MW came out. These nuclear power plants are prototype reactor nuclear power plants, whose main function is to verify the feasibility of nuclear power in project implementation through test methods; 1970s The energy crisis triggered by oil price increases has promoted the development of nuclear power. Most of the more than 400 units in commercial operation in the world were built during this period, and the economy was improved through commercialization, standardization, serialization, and batch operations.
The single-unit capacity of second-generation nuclear power plants is mostly between 600-1400 MW, and is currently the main model of nuclear power plants in operation around the world.
Chinese scientists and technicians have conscientiously summed up more than 30 years of nuclear power research and design experience, and learned lessons from the world's nuclear power development, and formed a third-generation nuclear power model with independent intellectual property rights-"Hualong One".
The design of "Hualong No. 1" implements the principles of nuclear safety defense in depth and design reliability in a comprehensive and balanced manner. Multiple barriers are set up to increase the safety factor to ensure that production activities are under the protection of defensive measures. The safety design concept of "combining with passive" enables nuclear power plants to maintain system operation under extreme conditions, greatly improve seismic resistance and better ensure safety.
"Hualong No. 1" has multiple safety guarantees: the double-layer containment can withstand the impact of large aircraft; the design improves the anti-seismic standard to further enhance the inherent safety capabilities of the power plant; the special safety system mainly includes the safety injection system, the containment spray system, The auxiliary water supply system of the steam generator and the air exhaust system have realized sufficient and reliable safety measures for all kinds of accidents of different severity.
The combination of multiple safety measures greatly improves the safety of nuclear power plant operation and the reliability of accident prevention. Once an accident occurs, it is ensured that there is no operator intervention within 30 minutes, and the accident will not escalate. There is no need to come from the plant within 72 hours of the accident. External support can respond to accidents.
In addition, the design life of the power plant has been increased from 40 years to 60 years, and the core refueling period has been extended from the usual 12 months to 18 months, greatly improving the availability of the power plant.
Hualong No. 1 meets or exceeds the needs of international third-generation nuclear power users in terms of safety, economy and performance indicators.
Experts from international institutions believe that: “Hualong No. 1 is mature and reliable in terms of design safety, and its innovative design based on mature technology and detailed test verification is mature and reliable.” In May 2015, “Hualong No. 1 Landed in Fuqing, Fujian; In January 2021, Fuqing Unit 5 of the world’s first demonstration project of "Hualong No. 1" was put into commercial operation. It took only 68.7 months from the first concrete tank of the nuclear island to the commercial operation, which was the only completion on schedule. The world’s first reactor of three generations of nuclear power.
"Hualong One" has become one of the most widely accepted three-generation nuclear motor models in the current nuclear power market.
Nuclear power is by far the most complex energy system.
Strengthening and optimizing the nuclear power business can not only drive the development of the entire nuclear fuel cycle industry chain, but also effectively promote the development of a large number of related high-tech industries in the upstream and downstream.
As a "super project", the world's first batch of "Hualong No. 1" projects has driven more than 5,300 upstream and downstream enterprises to realize the localization of 411 core equipment, and promoted the development of the country's high-end major equipment manufacturing industry and related service industries. The processing technology and technological level of dozens of industries such as metallurgy, chemical industry, machinery, electronics, and instrument manufacturing have a significant pulling effect.
Nuclear power is a high-tech strategic industry and an important way for green development.
China's nuclear power industry started in the 1980s.
Over the past 40 years, from learning and importing, digesting and absorbing to independent research and development, my country has already possessed internationally advanced nuclear power technology and nuclear power construction and operation capabilities, and the total installed nuclear power capacity ranks third in the world.
Technologists should further strengthen scientific and technological innovation, continue to promote the research and development of Hualong's follow-up models, strive to make breakthroughs in advanced nuclear power, new fuels, and new materials, and continue to improve the safety and economics of pressurized water reactor nuclear power technology, in order to promote economic development, Make greater contributions to protecting the ecological environment.
(The author is the chief designer and chief expert of "Hualong No. 1" of China National Nuclear Corporation)