Closed fuel cycle, half-life of nuclear waste only hundreds of years, use of depleted uranium nuclear fuel, greatly improve safety... This is a feature of the fourth generation of nuclear power technology that represents revolutionary improvements.
How far is this skill from commercialization? The answer is far away.
On August 29, according to the French newspaper Le Monde, Astrid project, which was previously designated as the first four generation nuclear power demonstration reactor in Europe by the fourth generation nuclear energy system World Forum (GIF) and the French Atomic Energy and Alternative Energy Commission (CEA), was officially sentenced to "death penalty".
Astrid (advanced solid technological reactor for industrial demonstration) is officially named as advanced sodium cooled industrial demonstration reactor, which is classified as sodium cooled fast reactor.
In 1999, the United States Department of energy (DOE) first proposed the initiative of the fourth generation nuclear power plant. In January 2000, it organized nine countries, including Brazil, Canada, France and Japan, to discuss the world cooperation on the development of the fourth generation nuclear power plant. Six months later, the nine countries formed the GIF and signed the agreement.
According to the definition of GIF, the fourth generation of nuclear energy system must have four important characteristics: the sustainable use of nuclear energy - the effective use of nuclear fuel to minimize the amount of nuclear waste; economy - the cost of power generation is better than other energy sources; safety and reliability - greatly reduce the probability and degree of core damage, and have the ability to quickly recover the operation of the reactor, etc. Nonproliferation and physical protection - guarantees are difficult to use in nuclear weapons or to be stolen.
Among the six most promising four generation reactors, sodium cooled fast reactor and lead cooled fast reactor are favored by many countries due to their relatively sophisticated skills. Other types of skill reactors include gas cooled fast reactor, supercritical water reactor, ultra-high temperature gas reactor and lava reactor.
As one of the world's top nuclear power powers, France's research and selection of the four generations of nuclear power has been carried out in two ways. Since 2010, Astrid and Alfred have been put on the agenda.
Due to the technical problems of high melting point, high viscosity and high corrosion to structural parts, Alfred is not as concerned as Astrid.
Since the beginning of Astrid project, the French government has provided about 627 million euros in funding.
According to the original plan, the Astrid demonstration reactor will be put into operation around 2022 with the power of 600MW, and will be operated by the successor of Areva, the former nuclear power giant.
It will be the No. 7 unit of the large-scale Marcoule nuclear power plant, replacing the No. 6 unit, pH é Nix, which began operation in 1974. Phoenix unit is the first batch of sodium cooled fast neutron prototype reactor in the world, with an additional power of 130 MW.
As with most of the new nuclear power projects under construction or completed, Astrid has failed to escape the fate of severe budget overruns.
At the beginning of 2018, the CEA committee had to disclose its claim to reduce the additional power generated by Astrid to 200MW due to the lack of funds. At that time, Astrid had burned 738 million euros.
But the proposal did not attract the attention of the Elysee Palace, the French presidential palace. After all, markron has promised to reduce the proportion of nuclear power generation in France from 75% to 50%. It's obviously not pleasing to add new generation nuclear power skills. Moreover, the final cost estimated by the committee may be as high as 5-10 billion euros.
Since then, Astrid project has completely disappeared from the public view. The dilemma of stealing the bell was finally broken last Friday.
"The project is dead long ago, and there will be no more resources or capital investment." "Astrid project is not likely to be completed in the short and medium term, and it is estimated that it will not be put into use in the first half of this century," the world daily quoted CEA Committee insiders as saying. Prior to that, the 25 member committee responsible for the project had also been disbanded.
Of course, the CEA committee still gives Astrid a chance. According to the echo, the Commission will submit to the government a research report on the technology of four generations of nuclear power by the end of the year, and ensure that France can maintain the research and development capacity of fast neutron reactors. However, it is estimated that the future research will focus more on feasibility analysis.
With the fact of Astrid's "death", the previous four generation nuclear power R & D climax entered the winter in Europe.
In 2015, Russia's bn-1200 reactor with the same sodium cooled fast reactor technology was shut down indefinitely. Prior to that, two industrial scale sodium cooled fast reactors bn-600 and BN-800 in Russia were already in operation, but the two units were more of prototype reactor nature.
The BN-800 fast neutron reactor is considered to be a more powerful commercial "fast" unit prototype necessary for future nuclear power development, according to the internal publication fast neutron of beloyarsk nuclear power plant, Russia satellite network reported.
There are four stages in the development of new nuclear reactor type: experimental reactor, prototype reactor, demonstration reactor and commercial reactor. Prototype reactor refers to the first reactor in a series with the same basic design, sometimes used to refer to the reactor with the same main characteristics but smaller scale as the final series.
The progress of the French Alfred, EU elsy and Russia brest-300 projects which selected the lead cooled fast reactor project is behind the stalled Astrid project.
Meanwhile, the Alfred project with the lowest power and estimated cost of 125MW is also facing the dilemma that the funds cannot be implemented. The completion date of brest-300 has been postponed to 2026.
In China, the research and construction of the fourth generation nuclear energy system is also in progress. 2007There are four stages in the development of new nuclear reactor type: experimental reactor, prototype reactor, demonstration reactor and commercial reactor. Prototype reactor refers to the first reactor in a series with the same basic design, sometimes used to refer to the reactor with the same main characteristics but smaller scale as the final series.
The progress of the French Alfred, EU elsy and Russia brest-300 projects which selected the lead cooled fast reactor project is behind the stalled Astrid project.
Meanwhile, the Alfred project with the lowest power and estimated cost of 125MW is also facing the dilemma that the funds cannot be implemented. The completion date of brest-300 has been postponed to 2026.
In China, the research and construction of the fourth generation nuclear energy system is also in progress. In 2007, China became one of the member countries of GIF. In October 2008 and March 2009, China joined two systems of UHT gas cooled reactor and sodium cooled fast reactor.
In December 2014, China's first sodium cooled fast neutron reactor, China's experimental fast reactor, reached 100% power for the first time. However, no significant progress has been made in the construction of demonstration reactors.
Now, in Shidaowan, Rongcheng City, Shandong Province, China, the world's first high temperature gas cooled reactor power station with the characteristics of the fourth generation nuclear power is under construction. The installed capacity of the power station is 200000 kW, which is jointly developed and constructed by China Nuclear Industry Construction Group Co., Ltd. and China Huaneng Group Co., Ltd. and Tsinghua University.
Shidaowan high temperature gas cooled reactor was originally planned to be put into operation in 2017. According to the interface news reporter, it is estimated that the operation time of the power station will be delayed to the first half of the next year, and the investment has exceeded the budget severely.
Since the Fukushima accident in Japan in 2011, the global nuclear power market has fallen into silence and has not yet fully recovered. In Europe, the three generations of nuclear power water reactors are all regarded as the great beasts of the environment. In this situation, four generations of nuclear power technology want to enter the commercial development, there is a longer way to go.
