HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype
pebble bed reactor
The pebble-bed reactor (PBR) is a design for a graphite-moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV initiative.
The basic desi ...
at
Tsinghua University
Tsinghua University (; abbreviation, abbr. THU) is a National university, national Public university, public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education of the People's Republic of China, Minis ...
in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
. Construction began in 1995, achieving its first criticality in December 2000, and was operated in full power condition in January 2003.
Two
HTR-PM
The HTR-PM (球床模块式高温气冷堆核电站) is a small modular nuclear reactor in China.
It is the world’s first prototype of a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed generation IV reactor. The reactor unit has a thermal capac ...
reactors, scaled up versions of the HTR-10 with 250-MWt capacity, were installed at the
Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant
Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant (), commonly known as Shidaowan, is a nuclear power plant in Shandong province, China. The site is located near the Xiqianjia village in Ningjin subdistrict, Rongcheng, Weihai, Shandong. The plant is located abou ...
near the city of
Rongcheng in
Shandong Province
Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region.
Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizatio ...
and achieved first criticality in september 2021.
Development
HTR-10 is modeled after the German
HTR-MODUL
Rudolf Schulten (16 August 1923 – 27 April 1996)—professor at RWTH Aachen University—was the main developer of the pebble bed reactor design, which was originally invented by Farrington Daniels. Schulten's concept compacts silicon carbide- ...
. Like the HTR-MODUL, HTR-10 is claimed to be fundamentally safer, potentially cheaper and more efficient than other nuclear reactor designs. Outlet temperature ranges between , which allows these reactors to generate
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-toxic, an ...
as a byproduct efficiently, thus supplying inexpensive and non-polluting fuel for
fuel cell
A fuel cell is an electrochemical cell that converts the chemical energy of a fuel (often hydrogen) and an oxidizing agent (often oxygen) into electricity through a pair of redox reactions. Fuel cells are different from most batteries in requ ...
powered vehicles.
HTR-10 is a
pebble-bed reactor
The pebble-bed reactor (PBR) is a design for a graphite- moderated, gas-cooled nuclear reactor. It is a type of very-high-temperature reactor (VHTR), one of the six classes of nuclear reactors in the Generation IV initiative.
The basic des ...
HTGR utilizing
spherical fuel elements with ceramic coated fuel particles.
The reactor core has a diameter of 1.8 m, a mean height of 1.97 m and the volume of 5.0 m³, and is surrounded by
graphite reflectors.
The core is composed of 27,000 fuel elements. The fuel elements use
low enriched uranium
Enriched uranium is a type of uranium in which the percent composition of uranium-235 (written 235U) has been increased through the process of isotope separation. Naturally occurring uranium is composed of three major isotopes: uranium-238 (238 ...
with a design mean burn up of 80,000 MWd/t. The pressure of the primary
helium coolant circuit is 3.0 Mpa.
[
]
See also
*
Pebble bed modular reactor
The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR) is a particular design of pebble bed reactor developed by South African company PBMR (Pty) Ltd from 1994 until 2009. PBMR facilities include gas turbine and heat transfer labs at the Potchefstroom Campus of ...
*
High-temperature engineering test reactor
The high-temperature test reactor (HTTR) is a graphite- moderated gas-cooled research reactor in Ōarai, Ibaraki, Japan operated by the Japan Atomic Energy Agency. It uses long hexagonal fuel assemblies, unlike the competing pebble bed reactor d ...
References
External links
Let a Thousand Reactors Bloomarticle at
Wired News
''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San Fran ...
.
* April 2014: presentation given to the IAEA
HTR Progress in China
Nuclear power stations in China
Pebble bed reactors
Tsinghua University
2017 in China
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