China: the first nuclear heating plant becomes operational

How can heat be produced for homes and industrial plants without emitting CO2? Simple, with a nuclear reactor, they thought in China. China's first nuclear-powered industrial heating project has been officially completed and put into operation at the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant in Zhejiang Province, the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) announced. The project started on July 15th this year and the construction of the main network was completed on November 15th. It went into operation on November 21st.

CNNC said the project is capable of providing guaranteed heat around the clock, up to 288,000 gigajoules annually. This is equivalent to saving about 10,000 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 24,000 tons.

“This is another major breakthrough by CNNC Qinshan Nuclear Power and Haiyan County in fully utilizing nuclear power after the completion of the first phase of Zhejiang Haiyan Nuclear Power Heating Demonstration Project in 2021,” he said. declared the CNNC.

The first phase of the district heating demonstration project in Qinshan, with a total investment of about CNY 940 million (US$135 million), was put into operation in December 2021. The project is divided into three phases. The initial phase now supplies central heating generated by nuclear energy to 460,000 square meters of homes in three residential areas and 5,000 square meters of apartments for nearly 4,000 residents of Haiyan County. The overall goal of the project is to have 704,000 gigajoules of heat, meeting the heating demand of 4 million square meters by 2025, covering the main urban area of ​​Haiyan county and the entire area of ​​Shupu city.

The Zhejiang Haiyan Nuclear Power Heating Demonstration Project uses the residual thermal power of the Qinshan plant in winter to provide heating for public facilities, residential communities and industrial parks in Haiyan County, without affecting the original power generation and reactor safety performance.

Qinshan is China's largest nuclear power plant, consisting of seven reactors. Construction on Phase I of the plant – a 300 MWe Pressurized Water Reactor (PWR) that was China's first domestically designed nuclear power plant – began in 1985, and the unit went into commercial operation in 1994. Phase II of Qinshan hosts four CNP-600 PWRs in operation, built with a high degree of tracking. Units 1 and 2, which form the first phase of Phase II, went into operation in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Units 3 and 4 went into operation in October 2010 and April 2021. Phase III consists of two 750 MWe pressurized heavy water reactors supplied by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd and commissioned in 2002 and 2003.

Of course, to enjoy nuclear district heating you have to live near an atomic power plant, but after that, the heating is free. Would you make the switch?

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The article China: the first nuclear heating plant becomes operational comes from Scenari Economics .

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This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/cina-diventa-operativo-il-primo-impianto-di-riscaldamento-nucleare/ on Sun, 18 Dec 2022 13:23:11 +0000.