China’s first commercial nuclear heating project has begun operating at the Haiyang nuclear power plant in Shandong province. Two AP1000 nuclear units will initially provide heating to 700,000 square meters of housing.
This use of nuclear energy heating will avoid the use of 23,200 tonnes of coal annually, cutting emissions of soot by 222 tonnes, of sulfur dioxide by 382 tonnes, of nitrogen oxide by 362 tonnes and of carbon dioxide by 60,000 tonnes.
The Haiyang Nuclear Energy Heating Project is expected to provide heating to the entire Haiyang city by 2021. According to SDNPC, with slight modifications, Haiyang units 1 and 2 could have the capacity to provide heating to 30 million square meters. With the completion and commissioning of subsequent units at Haiyang, the plant could eventually provide heating to more than 200 million square meters of housing within a 100-kilometer radius, avoiding the use of about 6.62 million tonnes of coal. Up to six CAP1000 units are planned for the Haiyang plant.
Unit 1 of the Haiyang plant entered commercial operation in October 2018, with unit 2 following in January. Together, Haiyang units 1 and 2 will provide some 20 TWh of electricity to the grid annually, sufficient to meet one-third of household demand in Shandong province.
Last month, SDNPC signed a contract for a large-scale desalination demonstration project at Haiyang to provide water for residents and industries in the area.
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The proof of the pudding is in the eating. When China stop building coal power plants and ramp up the construction of nuclear power plant then I will agree with you. But not until then.
China has just set the floor prices they pay for third generation nuclear, and it’s cheaper than coal.
‘The tariffs for electricity from third-generation nuclear projects in three provinces was set by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) at slightly below the cost of coal-fired power.
The Taishan project in Guangdong province was set at 0.435
yuan ($0.0649) per kilowatt-hour (kWh), while prices for the
Sanmen project in Zhejiang province and Haiyang project in
Shandong province were set at 0.4203 yuan and 0.4151 yuan per
kWh, respectively.’ ( Taishan has the French designed EPR reactors, while Sanmen and Haiyang are the first four operational Westinghouse-designed AP1000s. It’s probable that they can build their own 3rd generation nuke, the Hualong One, for less, and also later reactors should be cheaper than the first few off the line.) https://www.reuters.com/article/china-energy-nuclear/update-1-china-sets-floor-prices-for-3rd-gen-nuclear-projects-idUSL3N21J12S
Meanwhile, subsidies for renewables have been reduced, or eliminated, because the big increase in wind and solar last year led to a backlog of subsidies, as well as curtailment because there wasn’t enough transmission in place to take power from scarcely populated, windy areas to the east coast, where the demand is. That’s not an issue with nuclear, which is so far all coastal. https://e360.yale.edu/features/why-chinas-renewable-energy-transition-is-losing-momentum
Price and the fact that renewable is not polluting is also a factor. There is a lot of land west of the coast and a lot of sea east of the coast. Even in China nukes are expensive. And coal power plants emissions are choking the cities and the population. Everyone can see the trend that shows renewable replacing coal.
The Gobi and Taklamakan deserts are a lot further north than the Sahara or Arabian deserts, so much more seasonal. Cairo averages 3,451 hours of sunshine a year, and 198 in December. Urumqi gets 2,523 hours a year, and only 84 in December. Southern China is at the same latitude as the Sahara, but of course it’s not a desert. Guangzhou gets 1,628 hours a year, and only ~ 2.25 hours a day average for the three months of the monsoon.
Even over a country as big as China, the wind is not ‘always blowing somewhere.’ ‘Consistent with the monsoon progression, observed wind speeds over China exhibit a distinct seasonal cycle, with higher wind speeds from late winter into spring, and lower values in August and September’ https://rmets.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/joc.3613
Unlike these part time workers, coal, oil and gas are available anytime, which is one reason they make ~80% of our energy. Nuclear is even more reliable.
A small part of a very large country with lots of deserts and windy areas. There is a thing called a transmission line that can transfer power from the place it is generated to the place that it will be consumed. Don’t fall in love with any particular type of technology since it can’t return the favor.
It’s not supposed to be insulting. The separation narrative needs to change. This is a human endeavour.
Shandong province has a population bigger than California, Texas, New York and Illinois states combined, in an area smaller than Georgia. In winter they average six hours sunshine a day. Mean annual wind speed for most of the province is below 3 metres per second, which is below the cut-in speed for a wind turbine. How much room do you think they can spare for an energy system which will mostly not be working ?
The heat is a nearly free bonus. Only a third of the energy from fission becomes electricity, the rest is lost as waste heat. Use the heat, and you still have the electricity as well. The coolant water from the plant isn’t radioactive anyway, it’s a separate circuit from the one running through the reactor, and the district heating water will be another circuit again.
I have no doubt that you are right. But this sort of thing has been going on since forever. At one stage in its development the US was the number one copycat. That doesn’t make it right of course.
The plants produce electricity anyway. I think this is mostly waste heat. The water used to cool down the condensers is piped into houses. In summer when they don’t need heating, they dump the waste heat into the sea or into cooling towers. So this I think would be water in a tertiary loop, which has never been anywhere near the inside of the reactor.
A more paranoid person might think you had all of jello’s nuke responses censored. Must have been an over zealous spam bot.
They use a secondary loop to provide the steam. The reactor heats the water in the primary loop and then there is a heat exchanger where the secondary loop is heated from the primary loop. The basic problem with steam district heating is that it is only economical for area’s with high population density or high office building density.
Of course, renewable energy and heat pump units could have provided the same.
I think they should use all that hot nuclear water to make soy milk for the masses to drink….
Clean water until the inner reactor shield melts
You are obviously too lazy to even look up the facts, and then have the nerve to insult me. Low IQ. The individuals caught with their hands in the cookie jar were officers in Unit 61398. Not some “scientists” trained in the U.S. Ie spies. The “problem” is that the West is just catching up to a very successful IP gathering state sponsored program that’s been going on for decades.
Probably Asian scientists trained in the US. Who cares? Your us vs them bigotry is part of the problem my friend.
correction, after toshiba bought it.
You don’t get it. China STOLE the plans BEFORE the sale to Toshiba. Once Toshiba bought the (useless) asset, it was easy to agree to a tech transfer (for the stolen design) because the Chinese ALREADY HAD IT. Down to the nuts and bolts.
And what “sale” are you referring to?? Toshiba got nothing for their “asset” given the Chinese already took the blueprints (not only of the reactor design but all the rest of the supply chain components).
no, read the indictments. Transferred? LOL. Here is just one snippet. Use google to read the rest.
“In 2010, while Westinghouse was building four AP1000 power plants in China and negotiating other terms of the construction with a Chinese SOE (SOE-1), including technology transfers, Sun stole confidential and proprietary technical and design specifications for pipes, pipe supports, and pipe routing within the AP1000 plant buildings.
Additionally, in 2010 and 2011, while Westinghouse was exploring other business ventures with SOE-1, Sun stole sensitive, non-public, and deliberative e-mails belonging to senior decision-makers responsible for Westinghouse’s business relationship with SOE-1.”
just like in that movie the Marian where the guy uses the plutonium waste container as a source of heat because radioactive decay generates heat…
Wouldn’t it be easier to use the nuclear power Plant to generate electricity, and then use an electric heater? Who wants a nuclear reactor coolant pipe going to their apartment? I think it would make more sense to give people free Electric kilowatts in the winter so they don’t burn coal..
Title should read “China makes nuclear power from the designs officers from Unit 61398 of the PLA stole from the Americans”.