China’s first industrial nuclear-powered steam generation project goes online
- Heqi No 1 in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province, is the latest of Beijing’s attempts to diversify nuclear energy and promote a low-carbon transformation of energy
Through a 23.3km (14.5 miles) above-ground pipeline, CNNC said, Heqi No 1 could deliver 4.8 million tonnes of steam annually from the Tianwan Nuclear Power Station to the Lianyungang Petrochemical Industry Base, both in Lianyungang, Jiangsu province.
In a process CNNC described as “boiling water”, the project uses the steam generated from two of the Tianwan station’s turbine systems as its heat source.
The nuclear reaction turns the circulating cooling water into steam in the high-pressure generator, which in turn boils the water in the seawater desalination plant, and the resulting steam is sent via the pipeline to the petrochemical base.
To ensure safety, the project has set up multiple radiation monitoring points to detect radioactivity of the steam in real time. In the event of an anomaly, the project would shut down immediately, CNNC said.
The project provides a new solution for the green upgrading of energy in the petrochemical industry, Zhang Yi, chairman of the Jiangsu Nuclear Power Corporation, told state news agency Xinhua on Wednesday.
