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.