China launches world’s first gas-cooled nuclear power unit
On Wednesday, December 6, China announced the commercial operation of the China Huaneng nuclear power unit, which is the world’s first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor.
This is stated in the report of the National Energy Administration of China.
It is noted that the Chinese facility differs from traditional nuclear reactors in that it heats helium instead of water to produce electricity.
According to the Energy Administration of China, the gas-cooled reactor “is an internationally recognized fourth-generation nuclear technology”. It has broad prospects for commercial application in the field of electricity generation and combined heat and power.
The reactor is also designed to shut down automatically if something goes wrong – unlike some very old systems that required electricity to trigger safety measures, which led to the 2011 Fukushima accident in Japan.
It is reported that the reactor has been under construction for over a decade. Construction began in 2012 and the first electricity was generated in 2021.
