The New Age of Nuclear Power

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Power up!

 

INET’s power facility design can do the two things that matter most amid China’s explosive growth: Get where they’re needed and get big, fast. Developers aim to have a full-scale 200-megawatt version of HTR-10 by the end of the decade. They’ve already persuaded Huaneng Power International, one of China’s five big privatized utilities, to pick up half of the estimated $300 million startup cost. Construction of the production plant is scheduled to begin in spring 2007.

 

Hydrogen hope

 

Coming to terms with nuclear energy is only a first step for China. To power a billion cars, something besides fossil fuels is needed: Hydrogen is the most practical alternative. But it will take huge quantities of energy to extract hydrogen from water and hydrocarbons, and the best ways scientists have found to do that require high temperatures, up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. In other words, there’s another way of looking at INET’s high-temperature reactor and its potential offspring: They’re hydrogen machines.

 

For exactly that reason, Tsinghua’s researchers are starting their own high-temperature reactor design project. They are focused on what many believe is the most promising means of generating hydrogen: thermochemical water splitting. Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories believe efficiency could top 60 percent—twice that of low-temperature methods. INET plans to begin researching hydrogen production by 2006. In that way, China’s nuclear renaissance could feed the hydrogen revolution, enabling the country to leapfrog the fossil-fueled West into a new age of clean energy.

 

Why incur costly international antipollution protocols when you can have motor vehicles that spout only water vapor from their tail pipes? Why debate inferior alternatives when you have the political and economic muscle to engineer the dream?

 

The scale is vast, but so are China’s ambitions.

Vocabulary Focus

come to terms with (idiom) to gradually accept a situation or become used to something

offspring (n) [5RfspriN] something that comes into existence as a result or consequence of something else

leapfrog (v) [5li:p7frC^] to improve one’s position by moving quickly past or over something blocking one’s way or by bypassing some stages

protocol (n) [5prEutEkCl] a code of correct conduct or appropriate behavior for a group, organization or profession

 

Specialized Terms

water splitting (n) 水解法 the conversion of water into oxygen and hydrogen by a series of chemical reactions

核能发电新时代

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启动核能发电

核能与新能源技术研究院的发电设备设计可在中国爆炸性的成长过程中，达成两项最重要的目标：迅速载运至所需地点及快速扩充。研发人员计划于2010年时建置一套完整的 HTR-10 设备，可发200兆瓦的电。该院已经说服中国5大私营电力公司之一的华能国际电力，承担预估达3亿美元的启动成本的半数。这家发电厂预计于2007年春季开始施工。

 

寄希望于氢

逐渐接受核能发电仅是中国的第一步而已。若要驱动10亿辆汽车，单是化石燃料并不够：氢气是最实用的替代品。但是从水及碳氢化合物提取氢气需要巨大能量，而科学家研究出的最佳方式，便是在摄氏1000度的高温下进行。换句话说，从另一个角度看，核能与新能源技术研究院的高温反应堆及其潜在产物同时也是氢气设备。

清华大学研究员因此开始进行自己的高温反应堆设计工程，专注于多数人认为最有前景的氢气生产方式：利用热化法从水中提取氢气。美国桑迪亚国家实验室研究人员认为这一方式的效率可高达60%，即一般低温方式的2倍。核能与新能源技术研究院计划于2006年前开始研究生产氢气的方法。如此一来，中国的核能复兴也可带动氢气革命，让中国迎头赶上使用化石燃料的西方国家，迈入无污染能源的新时代。

若能拥有只从排气管排放水蒸气的汽车，又何必违反国际反污染协议而支付高额罚款？若能拥有足够的政治及经济实力来达成梦想，又何必讨论较次级的替代方案？

工程规模确实庞大，但中国也是雄心万丈。