A turning point for the nuclear energy industry ' 'ushering in a new era of multipurpose nuclear power' 'game changer'... Small modular reactors (hereinafter referred to as small reactors) have long been highly praised by experts in the nuclear power field at home and abroad, especially after the Fukushima nuclear accident, small reactors have become popular because of their flexibility and safety.
Following the development trend of nuclear energy in the world, China Nuclear Power Research and Design Institute has developed a multi-functional modular small pressurized water reactor with completely independent intellectual property rights through more than ten years of hard work. This is another major achievement of independent innovation after Hualong One and fills the gap in China.
Linglong One was born, and has become an important option for China's nuclear power "restart".
Born out of expectations
What is a small heap? International Atomic Energy Agency designation - nuclear reactors with an electric power of less than 300,000 kilowatts.
"The big pile we can think of as a home desktop computer, including the monitor, host, keyboard, etc., and the small pile we can think of as a laptop at home, with the monitor, host, keyboard, etc., all in one place." Song Danrong, chief designer of CNNC's Linglong One, offered a more informal explanation 39bet-xì dách-phỏm miền bắc-tiến lên miền bắc-xóc đĩa-game bắn cá.
As early as the 1970s and 1980s, the International Atomic Energy Agency began to advocate the development of small and medium-sized reactors. More and more countries, including the United States, Russia, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom and so on, compete to join the ranks of modular small reactor research and development.
In the 21st century, with the further increase in the demand for clean energy in areas such as power supply in small areas or remote mountainous areas, central heating in urban winter, central heating in industrial parks, power supply on islands and reefs, and offshore oil exploitation, and the country's strong demand for building a green energy system to achieve a "beautiful China", Small reactors have significant comprehensive advantages in terms of variable power scale, rapid modular assembly, convenient transportation, stable demand satisfaction, and strong adaptability to environmental conditions. As the most widely used nuclear energy application technology in the world, pressurized water reactor (PWR) technology has the highest technological maturity and the richest engineering application experience, which is the priority design technology in the R&D process of small reactors.
In 2003, NRI started the exploration and research of small multi-purpose integrated reactors, aiming at the needs of seawater desalination, cogeneration and nuclear energy heating, and completed the conceptual scheme and safety and economic evaluation, laying a good foundation for the development of subsequent projects.
In 2009, CNNC put forward the strategy of "differentiated development" in the 12th Five-Year Plan, and the small pile gradually "surfaced".
In 2010, CNNC listed the small multi-purpose reactor technology research and development as the group's key scientific and technological project.
In 2011, CNNC officially launched the research and development of modular small reactor. Codenamed ACP100 and nicknamed Linglong 1, it is a "blood brother" to the well-known Hualong 1.
The world's first onshore commercial modular small reactor has started construction
Although Linglong 1 is a small reactor, it is not simply a miniaturization of a large nuclear power plant.
"Linglong One is a new stack involving multi-requirement, multi-objective and multi-technology coupling, and there is no off-the-shelf stack that can be used as a reference. One of the biggest problems with the design process was that it didn't apply to the large pressurized water reactor technology that you could use directly in the past, including the data, so you had to start from scratch." Song Danrong said that Linglong One is the only third-generation nuclear reactor in the world that has passed the official review of the International Atomic Energy Agency. As it is the world's first commercial third-generation nuclear reactor project, there is no previous experience to follow, so it has become a "compulsory course" for builders to practice, summarize and adjust. "We started small piles of research and development at the same time as the international level, and some of our research and development were even earlier, so we didn't have mature experience to learn from, so we had to feel our way across the river."
In August 2010, Chengdu was sweltering with heat. Song Danrong led the small heap research and development team to work overtime to conceive and discuss the design of small heap. In the meeting room of NPRI, Song Danrong, Luo Ying, director of the reactor structure design Research Office, and Xu Bin, then the head of the reactor overall and reactor components professional group, reached a consensus after careful discussion that in order to take the lead, a preliminary plan for the overall structure of the small reactor must be presented in advance. This is a dead order.
The core technology of small reactor is the integrated layout design technology of reactor structure. Chen Xun, a young engineer, was selected as the overall technical person in charge of the reactor structure. He was pressed for time and the task was heavy. Through consulting a lot of materials, he finally had a preliminary idea about the small reactor. The feasibility and flaws of the idea need to be checked by more experienced old-timers. Chen took the preliminary idea of the small reactor to Hao Weiming, a veteran expert with more than 40 years of experience in reactor structure design. After more than 10 days of repeated discussion, the two submitted four different preliminary design proposals at once. Finally, after extensive consultation, the best plan was finalized, which is the prototype of the Linglong One that CNNC is now launching to the world.
In order to obtain the global pass, Linglong One voluntarily accepted the International Atomic Energy Agency's general reactor safety review. From 2014 to 2015, the research and development team of Linglong One completed more than 4,000 reports, and completed three rounds of technical defense successively in Vienna and Beijing, which lasted for two years. Finally, in 2016, it became the world's first small pressurized water reactor technology to pass an IAEA safety review. Compared to many countries in the world of small heap remains on paper, our country takes the lead in the key step of modular small heap project landing.
In late October, 2020, 12 nuclear power industry experts sit together, held a week-long ling dragon 1 total project time limit for a project plans, event and no real sand table, experts gather together to ling dragon 1 May encounter problems in the construction of a detailed analysis and discussion, even fine to a cog in the nuclear island. "Through brainstorming, we also put forward some reasonable solutions for relevant countermeasures, and asked experts to help us identify and judge, so as to eliminate some risks in advance." Li Song, project manager of the Nuclear Power Institute's small reactor, said that everyone is working hard to realize the Linglong 1 project as soon as possible.
On July 13, 2021, CNNC Hainan Changjiang Multi-purpose modular small reactor Technology Demonstration Project (small reactor Demonstration project) was officially started at the site of Hainan Changjiang nuclear power plant. Thus, the project became the world's first onshore commercial modular small reactor to be started, marking that China is at the forefront of the world in modular small reactor technology.
Creating another "national name Card"
If you have a big pile of mature technology like Hualong One, why develop a small pile like Linglong One? The answer: It's smaller, more flexible, safer and closer to the user, billed as a "mobile power bank."
As we all know, the million kilowatt pressurized water reactors under construction and in operation around the world are behemoths. Taking the French M310 and EPR, and the American AP1000 as examples, the reactor pressure vessel alone has a diameter of more than 4 meters and a height of more than 12 meters. Counting the steam generator, coolant main pump, voltage regulator and other main equipment outside the pressure vessel, the diameter of the entire reactor's primary circuit is nearly 60 meters, larger than two basketball courts combined. The task of developing the Linglong One was to be "small" and safer.
Linglong I is "small", small in power and volume. Linglong One is only one-tenth as powerful as Hualong One, a megawatt pile, while Linglong One is a 100,000-kilowatt reactor, which reduces the amount of nuclear fuel it can carry. In addition, compared with a large pressurized water reactor, Linglongi will have a smaller footprint due to its small size. Smaller power and volume for more application scenarios. It can be arranged not only on land, but also on offshore platforms, remote islands and reefs to realize heating and power supply, combined heat and power generation, and realize the application of pressurized water reactor technology in multiple fields, multiple scenarios and multiple demands, providing a stronger impetus for China's economic construction.
At the same time, ling dragon one USES a modular construction, through the standardization of a single module design, the manufacture mass production, reduces the manufacturing cost, small modular reactor system simplified, small size, convenient transportation, operating more simple, innovative modular design technology, which can realize factory assembly and on-site installation, greatly shorten the construction cycle, And according to the user load demand, flexible combination of scale, rolling development and construction, effectively reduce the investment cost of modular small reactor, to ensure economic benefits.
In addition, ensuring high safety is also an important task that Ling Long One must complete. The most prominent features of Linglong One are its integrated design, modular construction, high inherent safety and completely passive safety system. In case of accident, the core heat can be exported by gravity and natural circulation and other passive ways to achieve long-term cooling, and a sealed workshop is installed on the upper part as a secondary barrier. The safety analysis shows that the core damage frequency is less than 10-8/ reactor year, and the large-scale radioactive release frequency is less than 10-9/ reactor year. The safety is at the advanced level of third-generation nuclear power plants.
As a clean energy source, nuclear power generation has multiple advantages, such as safety and friendly, green and low-carbon, and economic efficiency. The Linglong One will generate 125,000 kilowatts of electricity and will generate 1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually after completion, which will meet the needs of 526,000 households. Its application can greatly reduce the consumption of fossil energy, promote energy saving and emission reduction. At the same time, each Linglong One unit's annual power generation is equivalent to reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 880,000 tons, equivalent to planting 7.5 million trees. Facing our country "in 2030 to reach the peak of carbon, 2060 to achieve carbon neutrality" goal, safe and positive and orderly batch development of nuclear power, can continuously, stably assume carbon peak, carbon neutralization tasks, help our country deeply push forward energy transformation and optimize the energy structure.
"Since 2011, due to the impact of the Fukushima nuclear accident and other factors, the share of nuclear power consumption in all energy consumption has been low for a long time, but there is still strong demand for the comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy, and the market potential is infinite. In addition to the demand for electricity, there is a lot of demand for energy - steam, hot water, desalination - that is actually growing very fast, "he said. Steam from nuclear energy can be used for industrial production, hot water can be used for winter heating, and there is a big market for desalination, Song said. The integrated design of Linglong One improves safety and can be placed closer to the city and users in the future.
The perfect cooperation between Linglong One and Hualong One, a million kilowatt generation independent nuclear power plant, has become the "double dragon" for CNNC to seize overseas markets and support the country's "Belt and Road" Initiative. It can be predicted that the safe and intelligent modular small reactor will promote China to take the lead in the world nuclear energy technology, and become a beautiful name card of Chinese made and original technology brand.