High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor Technology

On December 6th, China's national major science and technology project with completely independent intellectual property rights and the world's first fourth generation nuclear power plant were officially put into commercial operation in Rongcheng, Shandong, marking China's world leading level in the research and application of fourth generation nuclear power technology. High temperature gas cooled reactor technology is the latest generation of nuclear power technology.

What is a high-temperature gas cooled reactor?

High temperature gas cooled reactors, including; High temperature; “ Air cooling; Two keywords. “ High temperature; It refers to the use of high-temperature resistant materials such as graphite in the reactor core, which allows the outlet temperature of the core to reach a height that is difficult for other reactor types to achieve. This not only enables efficient power generation, but also utilizes high temperatures to achieve comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy, achieving multiple benefits at once. “ Air cooling; It refers to the use of inert gas helium for core cooling and heat conduction in a reactor, rather than the traditional pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant; Water cooling; The method is that helium is not easily reactive with other substances in the reactor at high temperatures, hence it is called“ High temperature gas cooled reactor;.

High temperature gas cooled reactor:; Born” A safe nuclear reactor

Safety is the lifeline of nuclear energy development, and as an advanced type of fourth generation nuclear energy technology, high-temperature gas cooled reactors have the advantages of; Born” Where does inherent security come from?

High temperature gas cooled reactor is called; A reactor that will not melt down; The inherent security it possesses has been achieved from the design principle stage.

Inherent safety=no leakage, no loss of control, no melting

Zhang Zuoyi, Dean of the Institute of Nuclear Energy and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University: Inherent safety reactors are defined as reactors that can cool naturally according to natural laws without relying on human intervention or external power under any accident or natural disaster conditions, and the core will not melt.

Intrinsic safety magic weapon one: four layers of high temperature resistance; Armor”

The black ball in front of me, the size of a fist, is the fuel ball of a high-temperature gas cooled reactor.

Wang Rui, commissioning personnel for the Huaneng Shidao Bay High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Demonstration Project: The outermost layer is graphite, which contains approximately 12000 fuel particles. Each fuel particle contains nuclear fuel used for nuclear fission reactions and energy release. Unlike other fuels, the nuclear fuel here is made of four layers of high-temperature resistant ceramics; Armor” Layered wrapping can effectively prevent the leakage of radioactive substances.

Intrinsic Security Treasure 2:; Building blocks” A nuclear power plant formed by

The high-temperature gas cooled reactor demonstration project adopts modular design and manufacturing, consisting of two modular reactors combined. Each module is a small reactor that can operate independently and can continuously load and unload nuclear fuel at any time.

Advancing towards the commissioning of high-temperature gas cooled reactors; No man's land;

High temperature gas cooled reactor technology has undergone extensive research and design work internationally, but commercial power plants have not been successfully built. The demonstration project of high-temperature gas cooled reactor has entered the commissioning stage since July 2020 and has been officially put into operation today. It has overcome numerous obstacles in the commissioning and operation of the unit, and has entered the world's nuclear power technology; No man's land;.

The commissioning work of a nuclear power plant is equivalent to providing power to the unit; Mine clearance” For the high-temperature gas cooled reactor demonstration project with over 2200 first sets of equipment, there is no experience to follow and the difficulty is extremely high. At the Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant, there is the world's largest and heaviest nuclear pressure vessel, which is a large metal canister used to wrap the core and helium gas. Helium molecules are small and prone to leakage, so the primary task of commissioning is to verify the sealing of the pressure vessel.

Wang Rui, commissioning personnel of Huaneng Shidao Bay High Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor Demonstration Project: This can be said to be a rare large-scale, high-pressure test with high potential risks. We need to monitor more than 100 possible gas leakage risk points on the pressure vessel, while controlling its temperature to avoid equipment damage.

After nearly 30 months of debugging work, the engineering personnel have completed more than 700 debugging tests, developed six key core technologies for debugging and operation specific to high-temperature gas cooled reactors, successfully verified the inherent safety and continuous operation capability of high-temperature gas cooled reactors, and achieved safe and stable operation of the unit.