Posted by onawah
(here)
(And if you believe that CCP propaganda, you might be interested in buying one of their bridges...)
In any case, at the rate the infrastructure in China is failing due to shoddy construction and increasingly heavy flooding, there won't be much of it left...
This video covers just a few examples of the current flooding, with yet more rain coming.
Where is your proof that the US think tank, ITIF.org, New Scientist and anyone that reports on China’s nuclear advancements are CCP propaganda?
Also typhoon Gaemi also caused major damage, severe flooding and deaths in the Philippines and Taiwan not just China.
https://itif.org/publications/2024/0...nuclear-power/
How Innovative Is China in Nuclear Power?
Stephen Ezell
Executive Summary
As Jacopo Buongiorno, a professor of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), observed, “China is the de facto world leader in nuclear technology.”1 Indeed, China likely stands 10 to 15 years ahead of where the United States is in nuclear power (referring especially to the ability to field fourth-generation nuclear reactors). China’s government has assigned considerable priority to domestic nuclear reactor construction as part of Beijing’s broader energy strategy. Looking ahead, China appears likely to use this established domestic capacity as a foundation for competitive reactor exports, much as its “dual-circulation” strategy has accomplished in other areas, such as electric vehicles and batteries.
Indeed, China has embarked on a rapid buildout of its nuclear industry, with 27 nuclear reactors under construction (more than two and a half times more than any other country) complementing the existing fleet of 56. The country expects to build 6 to 8 new nuclear power plants each year for the foreseeable future, with the country surpassing the United States in nuclear-generated electricity by 2030. In total, China intends to build a total of 150 new nuclear reactors between 2020 and 2035. Moreover, in December 2023, China commenced operation of the world’s first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, the 200 megawatt (MW)-producing, gas-cooled Shidaowan-1, in China’s northern Shandong province. China’s Nuclear Energy Administration has asserted that “90 percent of the technology in the new plant was developed within China.”2 China is also leading development and deployment of a new fleet of cost-competitive small modular reactors.
China likely stands 10 to 15 years ahead of the United States in nuclear power.
However, this does not necessarily mean that China’s largest nuclear power companies—notably the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) and the China National Nuclear Power (CNNP)—are exceptionally innovative technologically. Indeed, the bulk of China’s current fleet of nuclear reactors consists of “third-generation” nuclear reactors that were initially designed by the U.S. company Westinghouse Electric (its AP1000) in the late-1990s and whose technology and designs Westinghouse transferred to China in 2008 as part of a contract to build four Chinese reactors based on the AP1000’s 2005 design. And while China is certainly to be credited for deploying the world’s first operational fourth-generation reactor, as one expert commentator noted at an ITIF roundtable, “That technology has actually been known to the world for decades; it’s just that China took the actions required to build and deploy it.”3 It’s also of note that China’s second-largest nuclear power operator, CNNP, notes on its website that “innovation and research and development (R&D) are not the primary emphases of the company … Instead, the company primarily focuses on safety, stability, optimization, and sustainability.”4
Where China has thrived, however, regarding nuclear power innovation more pertains to systemic and organizational innovation. This especially refers to the country’s coherent national strategy toward nuclear power—at both federal and provincial levels—which entails a range of supportive policies from low-interest financing, feed-in tariffs, and other subsidies that make nuclear power generation cost competitive to streamlined permitting and regulatory approval (i.e., of safety and environmental impact assessments), to coordinating supply chains in an effective fashion. Indeed, as industry analyst Kenneth Luongo commented, “They don’t have any secret sauce other than state financing, state supported supply chain, and a state commitment to build the technology.”5 That said, China’s rapid deployment of ever-more modern nuclear power plants over time produces significant scale economies and learning-by-doing effects, and this suggests that Chinese enterprises will gain an advantage at incremental innovation in this sector going forward.
Nuclear fusion—the process by which two light atomic nuclei combine to form a single heavier one while releasing massive amounts of energy—represents a potentially transformative, disruptive nuclear energy innovation.6 In January 2024, the Chinese government launched a new national industrial consortium, led by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), and composed of 25 organizations, to promote the development and advancement of nuclear fusion technology.7 However, industry analysts observed that nuclear fusion technology remains very nascent, and commented that China and the United States are probably on par with regard to development of the technology. Those analysts also observed that China would be likely to adopt a fast-follower approach with regard to nuclear fusion and probably seek advantage when it comes to rapidly scaling deployment of nuclear fusion reactors, once they become technically viable.
The United States, with 94 operational nuclear reactors, remains the world’s leader in nuclear energy output, accounting for one-third of nuclear power generated globally. However, the country has only launched two new nuclear reactors in the past decade, with the newest, the Vogtle Unit 4 plant in Georgia, coming online this year (with its construction originally begun by Westinghouse but completed by Bechtel).8 If the United States is to again become a leader in the nuclear reactor industry, it will need to likewise adopt a coherent national strategy and a “whole-of-government” approach. Among other steps, this would entail sufficient staffing at federal R&D and regulatory agencies to support the innovation, down-selection, regulatory approval, and deployment of new reactor types; incentives, tax credits, or attractive financing that facilitate the production of cost-competitive nuclear energy; and policies such as streamlined export credit programs that facilitate exports from U.S. nuclear reactor producers. Civilian nuclear energy represents yet another industry the United States and its enterprises pioneered, but which has experienced a significant (and potentially permanent) loss of U.S. capabilities.9
Background and Methodology
The common narrative is that China is a copier and the United States the innovator. That narrative often supports a lackadaisical attitude toward technology and industrial policy. After all, the United States leads in innovation, so there is nothing to worry about. First, this assumption is misguided because it is possible for innovators to lose leadership to copiers with lower cost structures, as we have seen in many U.S. industries, including consumer electronics, semiconductors, solar panels, telecom equipment, machine tools, and, as noted here, quite possibly, nuclear power. Second, it’s not clear that China is a sluggish copier and always destined to be a follower.
To assess how innovative Chinese industries are, the Smith Richardson Foundation provided support to the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) to research the question. As part of this research, ITIF is focusing on particular sectors, including commercial nuclear energy.
To be sure, it’s difficult to assess the innovation capabilities of any country’s industries, but it is especially difficult for Chinese industries. In part, this is because, under President Xi Jinping, China discloses much less information to the world than it used to, especially about its industrial and technological capabilities. Notwithstanding this, ITIF relied on three methods to assess Chinese innovation in nuclear power. First, we conducted in-depth case study evaluations of two Chinese nuclear power companies selected from nuclear power companies listed on the “2023 EU Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard.” Second, ITIF conducted interviews and held a focus group roundtable with global experts on the Chinese nuclear power industry. And third, ITIF assessed global data on nuclear power innovation, including scientific articles and patents.
Importance of Nuclear Power and the U.S. Role
Enrico Fermi and his team at the University of Chicago constructed the world’s first artificial nuclear reactor, known as Chicago Pile-1, under the school’s football stadium in November 1942.10 In 1946, Congress passed the Atomic Energy Act, which established the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.11 The commission subsequently designated Argonne National Laboratory as the first and primary national laboratory for nuclear research.12 The United States commissioned the first commercial electricity-generating plant powered by nuclear energy, located in Shippingport, Pennsylvania, in 1957.13 The majority of America’s nuclear power plants were built in the 1970s and early 1980s, although construction of new facilities plummeted after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and almost all were launched by 1990.14
By the 1990s, Westinghouse Electric Company LLC and General Electric became America’s leading suppliers of commercial nuclear power plants. Driven by the interest in designing safer nuclear reactors in the post-Chernobyl era, in 1999, Westinghouse introduced designs for the AP1000, which became the first Generation III+ reactor to receive final design approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, in 2004.15 In 2007, Westinghouse (acquired by Japan’s Toshiba in 2006) won a CNNC bid for four AP1000 reactors, although this also included a major technology transfer agreement that significantly accelerated the advancement of China’s commercial nuclear power industry.16 This would become the main basis for China’s move to Generation III technology. For its part, the slowing pace of nuclear power plant approvals over the past-quarter century (and notably, the inability to find a robust domestic market for the AP1000) led to Westinghouse declaring bankruptcy in 2017, with its assets now possessed by Brookfield Renewable Partners and Cameco.17 Today, Bechtel is an important player in the industry, alongside a range of start-ups including NuScale, TerraPower, X-energy, and others that are attempting to design and build innovative fourth-generation nuclear reactors.
The rest,
https://itif.org/publications/2024/0...nuclear-power/
https://x.com/newscientist/status/1814729512732573719
The first ever full-scale demonstration of a nuclear reactor designed to passively cool itself in an emergency was a success, showing that it should be possible to build nuclear plants without the risk of dangerous meltdown
Researchers at Tsinghua University in China have successfully demonstrated a meltdown-proof nuclear fission reactor - the twin reactor design can generate 105 MW of power each and has been in the works since 2016.
Conventional nuclear reactors use fuel rods that are energy-dense, containing large amounts of uranium with smaller amounts of graphite. In the HTR-PM reactor design, the fuel rod is inverted, and a large amount of graphite is used within which uranium is encased.
The nuclear fission reaction occurs much slower than a conventional reactor and can withstand a higher temperature for much longer. Additionally, the excess heat generated through the process is dispersed over a larger fuel area and can be cooled using passive or non-energy-consuming methods.