Analysis of China's nuclear power development trend and advantages and disadvantages (1)

Nuclear power is the clean energy that the country encourages to develop. Under the current situation of macro expansion of domestic demand, the pace of construction needs to be greatly accelerated.

I. Development trend of nuclear power

Nuclear power plants are power stations that use large amounts of energy within the nuclear to produce electricity on a large scale. It is similar to our common thermal power plant. It uses steam to drive the turbine to rotate, driving the generator to generate electricity. They differ mainly in the steam supply system. Thermal power plants rely on the chemical energy that is emitted from the burning of fossil fuels (coal, oil, or natural gas) to make steam, and nuclear power plants rely on the nuclear energy released by the nuclear fission reaction of nuclear fuel to make steam.

1. The development of nuclear power in the world. According to the statistics of the International Atomic Energy Agency, there are 443 types of nuclear power plants in operation around the world with a total installed capacity of 396.678 million kilowatts. There are 24 nuclear power units under construction, with an installed capacity of 19.905 million kilowatts. The country with the largest number of nuclear power units is the United States, with 104 nuclear power units in operation, followed by 59 in France, 56 in Japan, 31 in Russia, 23 in the United Kingdom, 20 in South Korea, 18 in Canada, 17 in Germany, and 15 in Ukraine There are 10 in Sweden and 9 in China (excluding Taiwan). Nuclear power plants generate 16% of the world's total, of which France’s nuclear power plants already account for 78% of the country’s total electricity generation. These countries’ nuclear power generation costs have been lower than coal power.

2. The development trend of China's nuclear power. Starting from the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, China’s nuclear power development strategy has changed from “moderately developing nuclear power” to “proactively developing nuclear power”. At the end of 2006, China completed and put into operation 10 nuclear power units distributed in Guangdong’s Daya Bay Nuclear Power Plant and Ling’ao Nuclear Power Plant, the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang Province, and the Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant in Jiangsu Province, with a total installed capacity of 800,200 kilowatts. The five nuclear power units under construction are: Tianwan Nuclear Power Plant Phase II, Lingao Nuclear Power Plant Phase II, and Qinshan Phase II Expansion. The total installed capacity is 4,460,600 kilowatts. According to China's nuclear power medium and long-term development plan: By 2020, China's nuclear power to form a running 4,000 kilowatts, 18 million kilowatts under construction, accounting for more than 4% of the country's total installed power during the same period. This means that in the next 14 years, about 40 new nuclear power plants will be built.

3. The development of nuclear power in Fujian Province. The preparatory work for nuclear power in our province started in 1983. After 20 years of unremitting efforts, Ningde and Fuqing nuclear power projects have started construction. Putian, Sanming, Nanping, Lianjiang, and other places are also actively carrying out preparatory work for nuclear power.

Second, the pros and cons of developing nuclear power

1. Nuclear power security. Nuclear power is one of the safest industries in the world. In the history of more than 500 nuclear reactors over the past 50 years in a total of more than 12,000 reactor years, only two nuclear reactor cores have been developed in the 1970s and 1980s. Serious accident. The probability of a core melt accident in a 2nd generation nuclear power plant is 10-6 years, the probability of 2 generations is 10-7 years, and the probability of 3 generations is 10-8 years. The protection of defense in depth is adopted in the design of a new generation of nuclear power plants, providing multiple layers of protection from equipment and measures to ensure that the reactor power can be effectively controlled, fuel components can be adequately cooled, and emission materials can be effectively accommodated. Leakage occurred. The containment of a nuclear power plant reactor can withstand various impacts such as earthquakes, hurricanes, and airplane crashes. It is the protective god of a nuclear power plant and ensures that radioactive materials in a nuclear reactor do not escape into the surrounding environment.

2. The environmental protection of nuclear power. Nuclear power is a clean energy source that has a small impact on the environment and consumes less resources. Thermal power plants use the chemical energy released by the combustion of fossil fuels to generate electricity, and nuclear power plants use the nuclear energy released by the nuclear fission reaction of nuclear fuel to generate electricity. Nuclear energy is much larger than chemical energy, so the nuclear fuel consumed by nuclear power plants is much less than the fossil fuel consumed by the same power plants. Millions of kilowatts of generating units, the nuclear power plant only need to add 30 tons of nuclear fuel a year, a heavy truck can be pulled away, but thermal power plants have to consume 3 million tons of raw coal, need a daily train of 40 carriages.