China has made new breakthroughs in the field of fourth-generation nuclear power technology. According to the official micro news of China National Nuclear Corporation (hereinafter referred to as China National Nuclear Corporation), at 11:05 am on October 9th, China ’s first lead-bismuth alloy zero-power reactor, Venus Star III, was held at China Nuclear Science Research Institute of China Nuclear Corporation Called the Atomic Energy Institute) to achieve the first criticality, and officially launched the physical experiment of the core characteristics of China's lead-bismuth core. The criticality of the nuclear power unit indicates that the debugging of the overall system and equipment of the unit is basically completed, and the unit has entered a stable operating state with minimum nuclear power. Yang Hongyi, general manager of the lead-bismuth reactor and the zero-power experiment project, said that this also marks a significant milestone in China's key technology for the lead-bismuth reactor core. The development of the lead-bismuth fast reactor has entered the engineering stage from the basic physical research stage. At present, as a new type of fast reactor technology, the lead-bismuth cooled reactor has been included in the research and development focus of CNNC. At the same time, China has launched a fast reactor and closed fuel cycle plan. Cao Shudong, deputy general manager of China National Nuclear Corporation, said that the goal should be to complete the construction of a small lead and bismuth reactor demonstration reactor by 2025, and to realize the technological breakthrough of the small lead and bismuth reactor as soon as possible to form a model lineage development capability and mass production application capability. At present, the small lead-bismuth fast reactor independently developed by China has basically met the engineering conditions. In 2002, the Fourth Generation Nuclear Energy System International Forum (GIF Forum) selected the six most developed sodium-cooled fast reactors, lead-cooled fast reactors, gas-cooled fast reactors, supercritical water reactors, ultra-high temperature gas-cooled reactors and molten salt reactors The potential reactor type constitutes the fourth generation reactor system. Among them, lead-cooled fast reactor (LFR) refers to a fast neutron reactor cooled by liquid lead or lead-bismuth alloy. It has a good nuclear waste transmutation and nuclear fuel proliferation ability through closed fuel cycle, and has high safety and economy. It was evaluated by GIF as the first fourth-generation reactor expected to achieve industrial demonstration and commercial applications. According to Yang Hongyi, lead and bismuth alloys have a low melting point and a high boiling point. Compared with traditional reactors, in addition to higher inherent safety and the ability to resist serious accidents, they also have higher energy density and longer operating life. . In terms of application, the lead-bismuth reactor can be designed as a large-scale power plant with millions of millions of megawatts, or as a small modular nuclear power supply with megawatts. "How small can it be, a car running on the road can carry it, is a real portable nuclear power supply." Yang Hongyi said. The Venus series zero-power reactor is China's only important reactor physics experiment platform designed and constructed independently by CNNC for the development of advanced reactor engineering technology. Twenty years ago, the Atomic Energy Agency started the research and development of ADS and lead-bismuth reactor related technologies. In July 2005, China ’s first fast thermally coupled ADS subcritical reactor, Venus I, was built critical at the Atomic Energy Agency, and became the benchmark device for ADS experimental research conducted by the International Atomic Energy Agency. In December 2016, the Venus II lead-based dual-core zero-power device achieved criticality at the Atomic Energy Institute. Venus Star III has been built for nearly two years for the technical goals of the lead-bismuth reactor. After its first criticality, it will also carry out a series of experimental work. According to China National Nuclear Corporation, the reactor aims at the key difficulties in the engineering of lead-bismuth fast reactors. It has accurately constructed the interaction method of nuclear fuel and lead-bismuth alloy coolant materials in large-size lead-bismuth alloy coolant materials to more accurately simulate lead-bismuth reactor Core physical characteristics. The reactor is also equipped with multiple sets of passive safety shutdown systems based on different principles, with strong inherent safety. The international community is also accelerating the development of fourth-generation nuclear power technologies such as lead-cooled fast reactors, and developing uranium-molybdenum alloy fuels and accident-resistant fuels. The “Major Development Trends in Foreign Nuclear Industry and Technology in 2018†released in April this year shows that Russia has approved the construction of a lead-cooled fast reactor nuclear power plant, and plans to start construction in 2022 and start the construction of supporting nuclear fuel manufacturing plants in advance. Europe plans to complete the construction of the 600MW lead-cooled fast reactor ELSY and the 125MW lead-cooled fast reactor ALFRED demonstration reactor around 2030. The fourth-generation reactor technical standards published in the United States in 2018 stipulate the basic technical requirements for the design and construction of lead-cooled fast reactors. (Reporter | Jiang Fan) Fume Exhaust,Fume Extractor Exhaust,Laboratory Fume Exhaust,Weld Fume Exhaust NARWILL IMPORT&EXPORT CO.LTD , https://www.narwill.com
Image source: China Nuclear Group