Nuclear power could be adopted as a clean energy alternative for winter heating in China, said an energy expert, cnenergy.org reported.
In February 2018, China General Nuclear Power Group (CGN) partnered with Tsinghua University to work on the NHR200-II low-temperature heating reactor.
As the technology could be applied to heating systems, it represents another move by China to cut out the use of coal, which is a major pollutant.
In China, burning coal is the main form of heating in winter, said Jiang Yi, a building energy research expert at Tsinghua University.
About 70 percent of houses in North China adopt centralized heating, of which half is supported by combined heating and power generation and half by burning coal, natural gas and boilers.
Jiang said that because natural gas resources are scarce in China, it isn’t appropriate to use natural gas as the main heating option.
According to statistics, China consumes 213 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year, of which 140 billion square meters is self-produced, the rest being imported.
China’s imported gas accounts for seven percent of the total global trading volume. Jiang adds that relying too much on importing gas will result in a price hike; and if there is a trade war, imported gas will also be affected.
Nuclear power is an important form of clean energy, Jing pointed out. The cost of operating a nuclear heating reactor is only 8 yuan per GJ, while that of a boiler and deep geothermal energy is 70 yuan and 20 yuan per GJ, respectively.
The combined use of nuclear heating technology and thermoelectricity could effectively increase source-side supply of heat and reduce the use of electricity, he added.
The technology is expected to solve problems in different regions that lack heating resources, such as many cities in eastern and middle areas of the country, northeast China and some places in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
However, other insiders pointed out that China has not had an operational nuclear heating program and therefore it may take some time to test the economic efficiency and real operation of such new technology.
The safety of nuclear-backed heating technology is also worth noticing. According to experts, pool-type heating reactors are the most widely used as they are simple, safe and cost less to build.
Pool-type heating reactors have proved to be safe throughout years of operation in countries around the world. The technology is feasible in China, which has accumulated decades of research, design, construction and operational experience in this field, experts said.
Editor:Yaling
