Fast Breeder Reactor Illustrates Beijing Nuclear Power Caution

The China Institute of Atomic Energy announced it had placed an experimental “fast breeder” reactor online to produce electricity outside Beijing.  The reactor, dubbed “863″, generates 20-megawatts of power based on a technology that it produces more plutonium than it needs to run. China has a dearth of the sort of uranium conventional nuclear plants need to operate, making the fast breeders appealing.

Several countries, however, have dropped the technology as it is difficult to scale and relies on looping a flammable form of sodium to cool reactors, instead of water. However, given China’s dearth of potable water resources, the technology may appear more appealing to the Chinese leadership than to the West. The technology requires weapons-grade uranium, however, which is more difficult to handle than the processed uranium used in conventional reactors.

The Fukushima nuclear disaster seemed to encourage a great deal more testing of the technology before it was brought online than typcially seen in the energy industry, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Talks are still continuing for construction of a 800-megawatt reactor.

Source: Wall Street Journal