Beijing hails milestone as pipeline completed and connected to grid
A project to use the Generation IV* Shidao Bay-1 nuclear power unit in in Shandong province, northeastern China, to generate nuclear heating has been connected to the heating grid and begun operation, state electricity generator China Huaneng announced.
The project uses high-temperature steam extracted from the plant’s steam system to heat water in a heat exchanger. This high-temperature water flows to a heat exchange station where it undergoes secondary heat exchange to become residential heating.
The heating pipeline was completed on 22 March and the project was connected to the heating grid on 27 March, China Huaneng said.
China Huaneng said the project can meet the clean heating needs of 1,850 households, replacing 3,700 tonnes of coal every winter and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 6,700 tonnes.
The company said the milestone marks the first time that a Generation IV nuclear energy heating system has realised heating for urban residents, calling it a breakthrough in the comprehensive utilisation of fourth-generation nuclear energy.
In December 2023, China’s National Energy Administration said Shidao Bay-1 had begun commercial operation, becoming what Beijing said was the first Generation IV plant in the world to go online.
The HTR-PM (high-temperature reactor-pebble-bed modules) plant will ultimately have 10 units. Each unit consists of two small HTR-PM reactors of about 100 MW driving a single 210 MW steam turbine.
Construction of the plant, also known as Shidaowan, began in 2012 and it was connected to the grid in 2021.
* No precise definition of a Generation IV reactor exists, but the term is used to refer to nuclear reactor technologies under development including gas-cooled fast reactors, lead-cooled fast reactors, molten salt reactors, sodium-cooled fast reactors, supercritical-water-cooled reactors and very high-temperature reactors. An international task force, the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), is sharing R&D to develop six Generation IV nuclear reactor technologies. GIF said goals of Generation IV reactor design include lower cost and financial risk, minimising nuclear waste and high levels of safety and reliability.
