Here is Henri K take on the mystery of mini nuclear power
He speculate either a nuclear battery which is unlikely because of low power unlikely to be used for ground based utility, Or it could be mini gas turbine
According to the newspaper The mini reactor is already in operation. I am confused by different institution doing different thing here
According to
in one of the journals published by the Chinese army, the
China National Defense News , China's coastal defense forces are now equipped with "mini nuclear power plant", developed by civil society of the city of Hefei, which relieved the energy problems of some units in remote areas.
The excerpt from the China National Defense News
The news immediately created the buzz on the Chinese internet, and many Internet users are already speculating on the use of this "mini nuclear power plant" in other areas, such as on submarines, but this new Has mostly aroused our question marks.
How is that possible?
We ask this question not because the mini nuclear power plant does not exist and it is a pure invention of Chinese state media, on the contrary, but mainly because we have been following its project since 2016 when it was still in the laboratory Of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and from a planning point of view it seems very unlikely that the mini nuclear power plants have already been delivered to the Chinese army.
Indeed, the newspaper article used a very specific word to call this station:
宝 宝 , which means "Nuclear Pal", in the image of "Charge pal" in English which designates external chargers for electronic devices .
And the word "Nuclear" came out publicly in September last year when the INEST Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, a branch of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, made the headline news Revealing their success in testing a molten lead cooling system dedicated to a new miniature rapid neutron reactor called
CLEAR-I (一号 一号), currently under development.
INEST researchers then evoked
, which they intend to take 5 years to finalize the first prototype. And they just christened this small reactor to come the "Nuclear Pal" (宝 宝), the same name quoted by the
China National Defense News in its article.
And our research has shown that there really is a project to industrialize this mini nuclear plant in the city of Hefei. For example , an agreement
between the city of Hefei, INEST, IETP (Institute of Engineering Thermophysics, another research institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences) and the electrician group Private Ying Liu, to build a production site of the "Nuclear PW" class MW (Megawatt) in an industrial area of the city.
The official announcement also gives details of the mini nuclear power plant in question - a fast neutron reactor, cooled with molten lead, that uses supercritical CO2 (CO2-S) turbines in the Brayton cycle.
This last point is particularly interesting and confirms that the Chinese intend to construct a miniaturized nuclear power plant that would not exceed the size of a standard 20-foot
, with equal power the dimensions of the CO2-S turbine could be reduced by a factor of 10 compared to a conventional steam turbine, with a very significant gain on cost.
It is estimated that a 4-stage CO2-S turbine with a diameter of 10 cm and a length of 1.20 m could supply electricity equivalent to one thousand dwellings.
So if the collaboration agreement to build a production site is only signed in July 2016, and the researchers also indicated that they need 5 years from 2016 to finalize the product, how is it That it is possible that these "nuclear pals" are already manufactured and delivered to the coastal defense troops and the border guards within 10 months?
But the most important question now is, if it is not a mini nuclear power plant, what could it be?
It is believed that two options are possible. The first is that the GTR, a thermoelectric radioisotope generator, is primarily designed for space probes. But this option is unconvincing because the power of these is far too low, a few hundred Watt in general, to power equipment and meet the daily needs of a garrison unit.
The second possibility is that they are in fact combustion gas turbines, with a power of 1, 4 or 35 MW. Indeed, according to an IETP
(see above), this Chinese institute has set up a company, which has also established itself in the city of Hefei, but since the end of 2013, to develop and industrialize Gas turbine, in particular those of 35 MW.
It is therefore probable that the military journalists of the
China National Defense News have mixed the brushes, and it is not excluded either that it is voluntary on their part for this "error".
Naturally, we expect future elements to confirm or disprove this.
To be continued.
Henri K.
Then early in April I posted article about ship based nuclear reactor for offshore application
