PMBR The Next Big Thing In Nuclear Power

The technology is advances and Pebble Bed Modular Reactors(PBMR) are showing great promise. And where is it being developed? The US is participating, but other countries are doing the research. The PBMR is a High Temperature Reactor (HTR), with a closed-cycle, gas turbine power conversion system. Although it is not the only HTR currently being developed in the world, the South African project is internationally regarded as the leader in the power generation field. Very high efficiency and attractive economics are possible without compromising the high levels of passive safety expected of advanced nuclear designs.

The goal is a safer power generation technology, not capable of weapons production, and safe from meltdown. A admirable goal, that looks like it is within grasp. Light water reactors, are still the mainstay of nuclear power, but that could change as the newer PBMR and Westinghouse's AP1000 nuclear generating units comes on line. Currently the AP1000 is getting a lot of attention, China has ordered six generating units and is beginning ground breaking.

There is no denying it, electricity is key to modern society, without it there would be no modern society. What has retarded growth in Africa is mostly the absence of electricity, and of course the various tin-pot Marxists who are generally supported by Western leftists. China is right out front, with US helping ...

China begins groundwork for the 'world's most advanced nuclear reactor'

Mumbai: China has started groundwork for building what it claimed to be the most advanced nuclear reactor in the world, using technology from a US-based consortium.

The reactor, to be built at the eastern city of Sanmen, would use the third generation AP1000 technology from the Westinghouse Consortium, the Xinhua news agency quoted a sources at the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp (SNPTC).

China has signed an agreement with Westinghouse Electric Co. to build four nuclear power plants - two in Sanmen in eastern Zhejiang province and another two in Haiyang city in eastern Shandong province.

Sanmen Nuclear Power Corp will install six AP1000 nuclear generating units, each with a power capacity of 1.25 million kilowatts, before becoming self-sufficient in the AP1000 technology.

The AP1000 had never been employed in any operating power plant anywhere in the world, the report said, adding that the plant will begin commercial operation in 2013.

China currently has eleven nuclear generating units employing second-generation technologies - three using domestic technologies, two Russian, four French and two Canadian-designed.

China has set a target of an installed nuclear power capacity of 40 million KW by 2020.

Why is this being done in China and not the US? To be fair, several proposals are in works for about 19 US reactors, several are of the AP1000 type.

We are trying, there are two AP1000 reactors being proposed, one right down the road from me at Turkey Point, south of Miami and another north of Tampa. Both are receiving good reception from Florida Republicans. If CO2 is the problem, nuclear is the answer, and reprocessing the spent fuel recycles the highly radioactive nuclear material by reusing it. The US is now reprocessing the nuclear weapons material in old Soviet weapons, and France has been reprocessing their spent nuclear fuel for some time. The Clinton administration moved to shut down U.S. reprocessing research and development, along with other cute things like making a National Monument of the USA's low sulfur coal so we could buy our coal from his pal Riady in Indonesia.

In 1996 Clinton issued an executive order creating the 1.7 million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, rendering the "low sulfur" coal deposit off limits for commercial mining. The move, for all practical purposes, gave Beijing control of the world's only sulfur free coal through its Lippo Group partner.