China will grow larger

While we are still looking into nuclear as energy sources, China - a big player in both energy and economic power take a large step to go ahead with nuclear. Their target consist of three stages :-

• by 2030 - Fast Breed Reactor (FBR) in combination of Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) will produce 200GWe
• around 2050 - combination of FBR and PWR output are expected to be doubled up to 400GWe 
• by 2100 - full replacement of fossil power plant and electricity are generated by means of nuclear plant instead. The expected output is 1500GWe

To achieve this target, China are looking into some new experimental design like Chinese Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) which utilize fast neutron instead - which means neutron doesn't need to be slow down first to achieve a controllable reaction and desired power output like Generation II and III reactors. Some other alternative reactors that China still looking into are:- 

• Chinese Demonstration Fast Reactors (CDFR) - similar to OKBM Afrikantov design. It uses ceramic MOX pallets fuel (breeding ratio of 1.2).
• Chinese Demonstration Fast Breed Reactors (CDFBR) - uses U-Pu-Zr fuel which has higher burn up and breeding ratio of 1.5. These are Generation IV reactors. 

Credit image goes to Xu Mi, Chief Engineer at CIAE : “Fast Reactor Technology Development for Sustainable Supply of Nuclear Energy in China (slide presentation)

So, looks like China is one step ahead to achieve a higher score in never-ending global energy race. With it's current economic growth, energy hunger on such a large scale is already expected. Let's hope we can catch up fast. 

 

You can read more at : Summary of China's fast reactor programme by BraveNewClimate.com