News Excerpt:
China has started commercial operations at a new-generation nuclear reactor that is the first of its kind in the world.
About:
- This fourth-generation Shidaowan plant is designed to use fuel more efficiently and improve economics and safety.
- It will also reduce China’s environmental footprint as it turns to nuclear power to try to meet carbon emission goals.
- It uses a modular design. (Modular plants refer to those nuclear plants that are of less than 300MW and can be constructed off-site.)
- China has a goal to produce 10% of its electricity from nuclear by 2035 and 18% by 2060.
History of Reactor Generations:
Three generations of nuclear power systems -
- Generation I:
- It refers to the prototype and power reactors that launched civil nuclear power.
- This generation consists of early prototype reactors from the 1950s and 1960s.
- Generation II:
-
- It refers to a class of commercial reactors designed to be economical and reliable.
- Designed for a typical operational lifetime of 40 years.
- These reactors, are typically referred to as light water reactors (LWRs).
- Generation III:
- Gen III nuclear reactors are essentially Gen II reactors with evolutionary, state-of-the-art design improvements.
- These improvements are in the areas of fuel technology, thermal efficiency, modularized construction, safety systems, and standardized design.
Electricity generation in the nuclear reactor:
- A nuclear reactor is driven by the splitting of atoms, a process called fission, where a particle (a ‘neutron’) is fired at an atom, which then fissions into two smaller atoms and some additional neutrons.
- Some of the neutrons that are released then hit other atoms, causing them to fission too and release more neutrons. This is called a chain reaction.
- The fissioning of atoms in the chain reaction also releases a large amount of energy as heat.
- The generated heat is removed from the reactor by a circulating fluid, typically water.
- This heat can then be used to generate steam, which drives turbines for electricity production.