If you don't mind another question, China is building nuclear power plants close to the sea. To what extent do they take rising sea levels into account? NPPs might run close to 100 years+time for deconstruction and how far the sea levels will rise can't be predicted with absolute certainty (not an expert on this).
I'm no expert either, but the IAEA (e.g. SSG-18 and SSG-35) does advise countries to take into account climate change-related risks, including estimated sea-level rise of up to 59cm until 2090-2099 and extreme weather events, when selecting sites, and China presumably follows IAEA guidance. There has also been acknowledgment from China that sea level rise is factored into the safety calculus: https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/dfpd/dl/2011-04/11/content_12304612_2.htm
What is currently limiting Chinese NPP construction starts/approvals? Industry capacity, capital, demand, sites? I have read that lack of sites is an issue? And if so, why is China not building even more than 6-8 reactors per site?
Is China seriously working on supercritical or spectral control LWRs?
They are approving 10 reactors per year, and they've done it for 2 years in a row now. What's limiting them? Not much, except perhaps construction capacity. Last time I checked, they can build 40 reactor units at the same time. If each reactor takes 4 years to build, that's right around the pace of 10 units per year.
Lack of sites is probably not an acute issue. Just earlier today, construction started at a brand-new NPP site in Zhejiang (http://www.sasac.gov.cn/n2588025/n2588124/c30081997/content.html). They are not building more than 6-8 reactors per site because nobody does. The largest NPP in the world is Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (7 units, around 8 GW)
Thanks. I had read about the 40 reactor limit as being per year elsewhere but the number makes more sense as a limit on parallel construction projects.
Do they plan on rising that number? US construction starts in the 70s approached 30 reactors/year in a smaller economy and country, although the per reactor power was a bit lower than in China today.
If you don't mind another question, China is building nuclear power plants close to the sea. To what extent do they take rising sea levels into account? NPPs might run close to 100 years+time for deconstruction and how far the sea levels will rise can't be predicted with absolute certainty (not an expert on this).
I'm no expert either, but the IAEA (e.g. SSG-18 and SSG-35) does advise countries to take into account climate change-related risks, including estimated sea-level rise of up to 59cm until 2090-2099 and extreme weather events, when selecting sites, and China presumably follows IAEA guidance. There has also been acknowledgment from China that sea level rise is factored into the safety calculus: https://global.chinadaily.com.cn/dfpd/dl/2011-04/11/content_12304612_2.htm
What is currently limiting Chinese NPP construction starts/approvals? Industry capacity, capital, demand, sites? I have read that lack of sites is an issue? And if so, why is China not building even more than 6-8 reactors per site?
Is China seriously working on supercritical or spectral control LWRs?
They are approving 10 reactors per year, and they've done it for 2 years in a row now. What's limiting them? Not much, except perhaps construction capacity. Last time I checked, they can build 40 reactor units at the same time. If each reactor takes 4 years to build, that's right around the pace of 10 units per year.
Lack of sites is probably not an acute issue. Just earlier today, construction started at a brand-new NPP site in Zhejiang (http://www.sasac.gov.cn/n2588025/n2588124/c30081997/content.html). They are not building more than 6-8 reactors per site because nobody does. The largest NPP in the world is Kashiwazaki-Kariwa (7 units, around 8 GW)
Thanks. I had read about the 40 reactor limit as being per year elsewhere but the number makes more sense as a limit on parallel construction projects.
Do they plan on rising that number? US construction starts in the 70s approached 30 reactors/year in a smaller economy and country, although the per reactor power was a bit lower than in China today.