Nuclear power enters the dark era

The approval of the new nuclear power plant in China, which has been on hold for half a year, is expected to restart. According to an authoritative source, after the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan was leaked, China's nuclear power major inspection has completed the verification report and reported it to the State Council. By 2015, China's nuclear power capacity target of 40GW is a foregone conclusion. In the future, new nuclear power projects should be designed in accordance with international advanced standards, and full introduction of third-generation nuclear power technologies including AP1000 and EPR.

On March 16, after Premier Wen Jiabao of the State Council presided over the executive meeting, the State Council issued an announcement stating that it would use the “most advanced standards” to conduct safety assessments on all nuclear power plants under construction. In fact, most of the 34 nuclear power plants approved and constructed in China in the past five years do not meet the “Safety Requirements for Nuclear Power Plant Designs” (HAF102) issued by the National Nuclear Safety Administration in 2004. This is considered to be related to the IAEA. The basic synchronization standards for nuclear safety in Europe and the United States. According to Tang Zide, former deputy head of the Nuclear Power Leading Group of the State Council and expert from National Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd., 28 of the 34 approved nuclear power generating units are driven by China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group. Model, however, the second generation model does not meet the HAF102 standard.

Before the Fukushima incident, China was the most powerful force in the global nuclear power industry. According to the data from the International Atomic Energy Agency, China currently has 21 new reactors under construction, accounting for about 40% of the total number of nuclear power facilities under construction around the world. It is sufficient to see China's ambition to develop nuclear power. China had planned to soar from the 108,200 kilowatts of nuclear power installed capacity last year to 86 million kilowatts in the next decade, but it may now be downgraded to 60 million kilowatts. The leak at the Fukushima nuclear power plant has sounded the alarm. "For nuclear power, safety is first and foremost, followed by consideration of industrialization," said Qian Jihui, former deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference.

Michael Kruse, an expert on nuclear power at Arthur D. Little, publicly stated: "I don't think there are many people who foresee that countries like China will also intensify their attention to safety issues." Different from European and American countries China’s public opinion is not sufficient to influence and constrain nuclear power construction. Under the opposition of public opinion, Germany decided to close its 17 nuclear power plants by 2022. These power stations account for a quarter of the total power generation in Germany.

Tang Zide told the Energy Bureau that three rounds of expert meetings have been held on nuclear safety planning. Two schools of thought were formed at the meeting: One challenge school represented by the National Nuclear Power Technology Co., Ltd. (SinoTech) advocated a lower probability of leakage. The three generations of nuclear power technology; one faction represented by the China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group, advocates stable development. After the three rounds of meetings, the Energy Bureau drafted the first draft of the nuclear safety planning discussion, adopted the challenger view, implemented higher safety standards, and at least met the requirements of the HAF102 standard. In this way, the second-generation projects under construction have the potential to change the third-generation technology. However, this is not necessarily the final version.

The three-party situation back to the end of 2006, Westinghouse defeated Areva in the bid, successfully introduced its AP1000 third-generation nuclear power technology into the Chinese market, since then, the dispute between the second-generation and third-generation technology routes has never stopped. An industry source said that the introduction of Westinghouse technology at that time was largely to check the French technology. Previously, CNNC and CGNPC's second-generation technology was based on Areva technology in France. If three generations of technology continue to introduce French technology, China may be in a passive position.

Following the introduction of AP1000 technology, SMIC was established and positioned as “the main carrier and R&D platform for the third-generation nuclear power technology introduction, project construction, and autonomous development”. At this time, China Nuclear Power and China General Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. are still digesting and absorbing three generations of technology, and have begun to launch the second-generation nuclear power plant. From 2007 to the end of 2010, of the 26 nuclear power units under construction in China, there are 20 second-generation units and only 4 units of AP1000 third-generation units. In the past few years, a large number of second-generation nuclear power projects have been successfully built, and a second-generation nuclear power unit supply chain has been successfully cultivated in China. The localization rate of its equipment has exceeded 60%. At the same time, China National Nuclear Technology is also actively promoting the development of three generations of projects. It is understood that the state nuclear technology is discussed at an internal conference and plans to launch three AP1000 units this year. Eventually, the State Council has not approved it.

Formulating a nuclear safety plan is undoubtedly the best opportunity for the State’s nuclear technology to reverse its momentum. However, things did not go so smoothly. The first draft of the nuclear security planning discussion drafted by the Energy Bureau was opposed by China Guangdong Nuclear Power. The AP1000 technology has no actual operational experience, and China does not need to be a "testing ground." "AP1000 now has some doubts in the international arena," said Wen Hongyi, deputy chief engineer of the Planning Department of the China National Nuclear Corporation. Qian Jihui believes that the issue of the safety of China's nuclear power is not as worrying as the state of nuclear technology. In theory, three generations of nuclear power technology can reduce the probability of core melting. "The three-generation technology is not able to completely eliminate hidden dangers, and there is no way to verify it without experiencing extreme abnormalities," said Qian Jihui.

After the second-generation nuclear power technology has been improved, it already has practical operating experience, and the safety record of the second-generation nuclear power plant operated by China Guangdong Nuclear Power is good. What is even more crucial is that after the cultivation of supporting industries in the past few years, the cost of second-generation nuclear power plants is very competitive compared with the three generations. According to Cao Yu, an analyst at Frost & Sullivan Consulting, the cost per kilowatt for the three generations of nuclear power plants is now two to three times that of the second generation units. In June of this year, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corp. put forward the concept of “filling in and filling up” and proposed to complete the construction of all second-generation nuclear power projects under construction and approval. This is contrary to the direction of discussing the first draft.

In the nuclear power industry transformed from the military industry, the rules of the game were set by a handful of giant players and were deeply influenced by the policies. China National Nuclear Corporation, China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation and China Power Investment Corporation have operated all nuclear power plants in the country. “The five major power generation groups all want nuclear power, but the country will certainly not issue licenses again,” Cao said. In such an oligopolistic market, subtle fluctuations may cause changes in the entire industry. The increase in safety standards this time is the source of the fluctuations.

In fact, the fluctuating signal has caused changes. The CNNC, which had previously stood in the same camp with China Guangdong Nuclear Power on the technical route issue, has quietly changed its stance. The requirements for some supplier materials have been raised from the second-generation technical requirements to three generations. The CNNC internal meeting also proposed a plan to transfer equipment orders for the Hunan Taohuajiang nuclear power project (using AP1000 technology) to the Liaoning Xudabao nuclear power project.

Another fact that has not been noticed is that in order to meet the HAF102 standard, CNNC and China General Nuclear are conducting research and development of autonomous third-generation nuclear power technology on the basis of the second-generation addition. Earlier, Qian Jihui participated in an expert consultation meeting on the independent third-generation nuclear power technology within China Guangdong Nuclear Power. Qian introduced that the three generations of technologies developed by China Guangdong Nuclear are improved on the basis of three generations of European EPR technology, and are not the same technical route as AP1000. However, China Guangdong Nuclear Power still invested 600 million in nuclear technology. "Investment is mandatory by the state. This is actually a freak, and companies do not have autonomy," said Qian Jihui. It is reported that China National Nuclear Technology has signed an agreement for the transfer of AP1000 third-generation nuclear power technology with China National Nuclear Corporation and China Guangdong Nuclear Power respectively.

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