China Commences Construction on Ningde 4 Nuclear Power Plant.

[NNadir]

Main construction work began on the Ningde 4 nuclear power reactor last week, while milestones were reached at two other reactors under construction.

Work on the nuclear island at Nindge 4 officially began on 29 September at a ceremony attended by project partners China Guangdong Nuclear Power Co. and Datang International. The 1080 MWe CPR-1000 reactor is being constructed by China Guangdong Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation and CNI Huaxing Construction. About 85% of the reactor's parts should come from Chinese suppliers, up from 75% for units 1 and 2. The steam turbines and generator set is coming from Dongfang Electric and will use Alstom's Arabelle half-speed technology. The French firm was recently subcontracted by Dongfang for this.

The first phase of development at Ningde nuclear power plant is now fully underway, with four reactors at various stages of construction. Unit 1 is set to begin operation at the end of 2012, construction having begun in February 2008. The cost of the units is set at a grand total of only CNY 52 billion ($7.6 billion), although at least two more CPR-1000s are planned in a second phase of building...

http://www.world-nuclear-news.org/NN_Ningde_4_the_latest_Chinese_reactor_project_04101001.html">Ningde 4 construction begins.

The new reactor is rated at 1000 MWe, which means that it would need to operate at 69% capacity utilization to produce as much energy as all the wind turbines in Denmark, something it is relatively easy for nuclear reactors to do, since they generally operate at close to 90% capacity utilization.

The number of reactors in China now under construction remains at 24, since one newly completed reactor received its commercial license last week and is no longer "under construction."

In the next 5 years, China plans a total investment in nuclear energy of about $120 billion US in nuclear power, an amount which is actually greater than their total annual military budget.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

1. My husband worked on this

It's neat!

[NNadir]

2. That's interesting. What did he do on this?

[FunkyLeprechaun]

3. He worked on the generators

He is no longer affiliated with the company and now works for a different engineering company but he worked on this Chinese project for almost 5 years.

[NNadir]

4. Cool. I'm glad that US business is working on generators for these plants.

[FunkyLeprechaun]

9. No, it was a British company

Sorry about that!

[GliderGuider]

5. Imagine if the USA spent $750 billion over 5 years on nuclear power...

You might actually be able to take more than a few coal plants out of service early.

That $750 billion would equal China's planned expenditures in relation to its military budget...

That $750 billion would buy about 150,000 MWe of nuclear capacity for an actual generating ability of about 1200 TWh per year at 90% capacity. That's almost 1/3 of the total electricity generated in the USA last year.

As far as I can tell, that $750 billion would buy almost exactly the same amount of actual electricity produced by wind power.

So the argument (as always) really comes down to things like land usage, intermittency vs. base load, granularity of installation, Industrial capacity and build-out times, and the question of public acceptability (perceived risk vs. perceived aesthetic disruption). All of these except the public acceptability factors can be dealt with objectively...

[phantom power]

6. Nah, we'll spend it on Afghanistan, banksters and tax cuts

and maybe even Pakistan! :woohoo:

[GliderGuider]

7. Probably. The sad thing is, that's only 1% of your GDP.

To essentially wipe coal-fired electricity generation off the map in 5 years.

As in all human problems, the real obstacles are not objective...

[Nihil]

8. So true ...

> As in all human problems, the real obstacles are not objective...

That applies right across the board doesn't it?

:-(

[kristopher]

10. Or more effectively...

http://apolloalliance.org/apollo-14/the-full-report/

[GliderGuider]

11. Hey, that looks so keen!

Enjoy yourself, impress your friends and neighbours while saving western civilization at home in your spare time.

[Kolesar]

12. When in doubt, test the line between what is polite and what is not...eom

[GliderGuider]

13. What goes around comes around, I'm afraid.

I normally try to be polite, but yes, sometimes my baser instincts run away with me. There are lots of ways of being impolite, so I'll try and pick a more polite way next time the urge hits.