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 A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and software programming. A prototype is generally used to ...

of a high-temperature gas-cooled (HTGR) pebble-bed generation IV reactor. The reactor unit has a thermal capacity of 250 MW, and two reactors are connected to a single steam turbine to generate 210 MW of electricity. Its role is to replace coal-fired power plants in China's interior, in line with the country's plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2060.

History

The HTR-PM is a

high-temperature gas-cooled reactor A high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR), is a nuclear reactor that uses a graphite moderator with a once-through uranium fuel cycle. The HTGR is a type of high-temperature reactor (HTR) that can conceptually have an outlet temperature of ...

(HTGR) and is partly based on the earlier

HTR-10 HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype pebble bed reactor at Tsinghua University in China. Construction began in 1995, achieving its first criticality in December 2000, and was operated in full power condition in January 2003. Two HTR-PM reactors, scaled ...

prototype reactor. The demonstration project for the High-Temperature gas-cooled Reactor Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) was launched in 2001. Work on the first demonstration power plant, composed of two reactors driving a single steam turbine, began in December 2012 in

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 ...

in Shandong province. The pressure vessels of the two reactors were installed in 2016. The steam generator shell, hot gas duct shell and reactor pressure vessel shell of the first reactor in the HTR-PM demonstration project were successfully paired on 28 April 2020, paving the way for the installation of the main helium fan. The cold functional tests of the HTR-PM were successfully completed between October and November 2020. The air and helium mixture was pressurized to a maximum of 8.9 MPa in the primary coolant loop. Following the cold functional tests, the hot tests were performed in three stages: vacuum dehumidification, heating and dehumidification and the hot functional tests. The hot tests began in December 2020, and would continue before bringing the reactor online. On 12 September 2021, the first of two reactors achieved criticality. On 11 November 2021, reactor two achieved first criticality. On 20 December 2021, reactor one was connected to the state power grid and began producing power. On 9 December 2022, the HTR-PM project demonstrated it had reached "initial full power".

Concerns

A 2018 paper by

Rainer Moormann Rainer Moormann (born 1950) is a German chemist and nuclear whistleblower. He grew up in Osnabrück. After finishing highschool he studied physical chemistry in Braunschweig and received a doctor's degree with Raman spectroscopic and theoretica ...

and others published in the journal ''

Joule The joule ( , ; symbol: J) is the unit of energy in the International System of Units (SI). It is equal to the amount of work done when a force of 1 newton displaces a mass through a distance of 1 metre in the direction of the force appli ...

'' recommended additional safety measures for this type of reactor based on experiences with the German

AVR reactor The AVR reactor (german: Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor) was a prototype pebble-bed reactor, located immediately adjacent to Jülich Research Centre in West Germany, constructed in 1960, grid connected in 1967 and shut down in 1988. It was a ...

References

{{nuclear-energy-stub category:Nuclear technology in China Small modular reactor Pebble bed reactors

History

Concerns

See also

References