EIRNS—World Nuclear News has compiled the data for the status of nuclear power at the end of 2014, and the picture isn’t pretty. During the entire year, five new nuclear reactors began supplying electricity—three in China, Atucha 2 in Argentina, and Russia’s Rostov 3 unit. One was shut down—Vermont Yankee, just a few days ago.
There were three new units that began construction during the year. They are additional units at existing sites in Belarus and the U.A.E., and first concrete was poured for Argentina’s CAREM small reactor. All told, there were 436 operating reactors on Dec. 30th, with Japan’s 48 reactors still shut down. The overall figure has remained virtually unchanged for the past few years.
Currently, there are 70 reactors under construction worldwide, with most of the total in China, Russia, and India.
Meanwhile, China is making steady progress in its next-generation pebble bed HTGR advanced reactor, which technology was demonstrated decades ago in Germany and then abandoned. The Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology at Tsinghua University, which has been researching fuel element technology for pebble bed reactors for 30 years, has developed a production line for the fuel elements, but requires qualification to be able to license any plants, World Nuclear News reports. The Nuclear Research and Consultancy Group, which operates the High Flux Reactor in The Netherlands, has completed a "multi-year qualification irradiation project, on five sample fuel elements," subjecting them to a radiation environment on par with what they will face inside an operating reactor. They passed the tests. The second step in the qualification process is heating tests at a facility in Karlsruhe, Germany, to demonstrate the integrity of the elements under accidental conditions.
A pilot plant to mass produce fuel elements for the pebble bed reactor is nearing completion in Baotou, Inner Mongolia, and is expected to be commissioned in August. This year, a pebble bed demonstration plant in Shandong province is scheduled to start commercial operation. It will be the only one in the world.
Marsha Freeman
