Text: Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
Editor|Xiao Peng's brilliant notes
[Preface]
In today's energy development, green, environmental protection and sustainable development have become the core topics, and the uncontrolled and unscientific exploitation of resources by human activities in the past has inevitably had an impact on the earth's environment.
Therefore, countries around the world are vigorously exploring the development of clean energy, and various fields are also trying to replace traditional fossil energy with clean energy, which will have an impact on the environment.
In terms of power resources, the mainland now has a variety of power generation methods, in addition to traditional thermal power generation, there are also nuclear power generation, wind power generation, hydro power and solar power generation, and so on.
Among all the power generation methods, nuclear power is the most efficient, because it uses nuclear fission reaction to produce energy, and the conversion efficiency can be as high as 30% to 40%.
Because of its very high efficiency, all countries are actively exploring nuclear power, among which the United States has more than 810 billion tons of nuclear power generation, ranking first in the world.
In the statistics of 2022, Russia, which is at the forefront of nuclear power generation in the world, has made a new breakthrough in power generation, reaching 223.371 billion kWh.
How much nuclear power is generated on the mainland, and what is the development?
【Development of Nuclear Power】
Nuclear power generation is actually the use of nuclear fission in a nuclear reactor to release energy, in the process of power generation, the first is to use uranium fuel to carry out a nuclear fission chain reaction to generate heat.
Then the main pump drives the primary circuit coolant, which forms a circulation through the reactor pressure vessel and the steam generator, in which saturated steam is generated, and the steam drives the steam turbine, and then the generator generates electricity and sends it to the power grid.
In this process, the heat generated by nuclear reactions is millions of times higher than that produced by burning fossil fuels, and the energy consumption is correspondingly small.
Someone has described nuclear power as follows: a "round ball" with a diameter of less than 3 meters can generate 1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity a day, which is enough for the industrial and agricultural needs of a medium-sized city.
Nuclear power on the mainland began to develop in the 70s of the 20th century, because at that time the mainland was facing a very fast growth in electricity demand.
The mainland's first nuclear power plant was established in 1991 in cooperation with Western countries, and nuclear power technology and the establishment of nuclear power plants are not so easy, so why choose to develop nuclear power alone, and be so eager to vigorously develop nuclear power?
In fact, because the fossil energy originally used for power generation is limited, not an inexhaustible source of energy, the energy consumption of the whole world is increasing sharply, and the problem of energy shortage is becoming more and more serious.
Moreover, thermal power generation is very polluting to the atmosphere, green development is imminent, and in the period of rapid economic development, it is necessary to meet the demand for electricity, so finding alternative energy sources has become a top priority.
Although wind and hydropower can be realized, hydropower cannot meet the power demand of the mainland, and wind and solar power have certain limitations, so nuclear power has become a good choice.
Nuclear fission does not produce any harmful substances, and the establishment of a nuclear power plant can basically support more than a year with a refueling, and the cost is far lower than that of thermal power stations.
At the same time, there is no need to consider the issue of energy, because its resources can be recycled, and the energy produced by one kilogram of uranium is almost equivalent to the energy produced when 2 million kilograms of high-quality coal are burned, so the development of nuclear power is urgent.
【China's Nuclear Power Generation】
According to the statistics in April 2023, there are 24 nuclear power units under construction in mainland China, with a total installed capacity of 26.81 million kilowatts, ranking first in the world in the world.
For the whole of 2022, the mainland's total nuclear power production was 417.78 billion kWh, an increase of 2.5% year-on-year compared to last year, reaching the second highest level in the world, and nuclear power accounted for 4.7% of the country's total power generation.
The use of nuclear power in 2022 is equivalent to a reduction of almost 120 million tonnes of standard coal burning, which is equivalent to a reduction of 3.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions.
In the assessment of the World Association of Nuclear Operators, 37 units on the mainland have achieved full scores in the composite index, accounting for half of the world's full scores.
In the whole year of 2023, the cumulative commercial power generation reached 209.858 billion kWh, an increase of 5.30% compared with last year, and in the mainland's nuclear power development plan, it is expected that in 2035, nuclear power generation will account for about 10%.
The Hongyanhe Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear power plant in mainland China, was officially put into operation in 2022, with an installed capacity of 29% of the Three Gorges, but in terms of designed power generation, it can reach 54% of the Three Gorges power generation.
This nuclear power plant can generate 48 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year, and this one can supply electricity to the people of the whole province.
【U.S. Nuclear Power Generation】
In 2022, the United States generated 812.144 billion kilowatt hours of nuclear power, although there is a certain decrease compared with the previous year, but it is still in the first position in the world.
In the early 80s, the United States increased the ratio of nuclear power to one-tenth of the country's electricity generation, and in recent years, it has rarely built new nuclear power plants, but has carried out technical transformation of old ones.
Technicians have refueled, updated safety systems, and maintained aging facilities, reducing the average cost of the improved U.S. nuclear power plant to about $30 per megawatt-hour and more than doubling the actual amount of electricity generated.
Moreover, the United States not only has the largest amount of nuclear power generation, but also has the largest number of nuclear power plants, reaching 92, and in 1957, its first nuclear power plant was established, a 60,000-kilowatt prototype pressurized water reactor nuclear power plant.
Since then, it has been a period of glorious development, and its fastest development is not in the era of today's advanced technology, but from the 60s of the last century until 1977.
At that time, the United States maintained the world's first position in this field, both in terms of power generation and total installed capacity, and almost all of its current power supply was established during this period.
However, after the Three Mile Island nuclear accident, the public realized the dangers of the nuclear power plant and began to oppose the construction of nuclear power plants, and the U.S. government was under tremendous pressure at the time.
In the 40 years or so since this incident, its development in this field has been very slow and has entered a very low period, but it still occupies an important position in global nuclear power and plays an irreplaceable role.
【Russia's power generation】
In 2022, Russia's nuclear power generation reached a record high of 223.371 billion kWh, and its total domestic installed capacity reached 29.5 million kilowatts, accounting for about 20% of Russia's total power generation.
In fact, since 2022, all countries have been actively adjusting their nuclear power policies and increasing the construction of nuclear power plants, and even some countries that have abandoned nuclear power have begun to reconsider the establishment of nuclear power plants.
Because energy is currently very tight and the climate problem is serious every day, people are also starting to implement nuclear power with zero pollution when generating electricity.
The UK has announced that it will build eight nuclear power plants by 2030, and then by 2050, nuclear power will account for 25% of the country's total electricity generation.
South Korea, which had abandoned the use of nuclear power, has also begun to maintain existing nuclear power plants to extend their service life, and has also begun to actively build new nuclear power plants.
Japan has been very unwelcoming to nuclear power since its nuclear disaster, which used to be almost one-third of the country's electricity, but then suddenly reduced to 10 percent.
As a result, there will be a shortage of electricity in Japan in 2023, and the government can only ask the public to reduce the use of electrical appliances.
However, there is no way to solve the problem by "province" alone, so the Japanese prime minister expressed his attitude towards the development of new nuclear energy projects, and also approved a plan for the use of nuclear energy.
[Why can't we give up nuclear power generation?]
In fact, although nuclear power is low-carbon, efficient and clean, there have been many nuclear safety accidents in the history of nuclear power development in the world, such as the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States that we mentioned earlier.
In the process of nuclear fission, the consequences of the reaction if it are accidentally uncontrolled can be catastrophic, and the waste produced by the nuclear power plant is also radioactive.
If an accident occurs during the storage process and these waste materials are released into the environment, it will not only cause harm to the ecological environment, but also affect human health to a large extent.
Because of this, some countries such as South Korea and Japan will talk about nuclear color change in the previous period, but we have to admit that although the development momentum of wind and solar power is very strong, nuclear power as a baseload energy can still not be absent.
In addition to high efficiency and no pollution, it is also important that this power generation method is not affected by the season or the environment, which means that the power supply can be stable.
Of course, the mainland is also actively developing innovative tasks for the safe disposal of nuclear waste, and the Qixing 2 is a device developed by the mainland and used in the work of nuclear power plants.
This equipment can greatly improve the efficiency of nuclear fuel, and the nuclear waste generated in the process can be recycled.
The lead-cold material not only reduces or even eliminates the radioactivity of nuclear waste, but also converts the energy released in the process into electricity.
It is believed that in the future, the development of nuclear power in the mainland will "go to the next level" and lead the development of nuclear power in the world.
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References:
National Energy Administration - "Ye Qizhen: Innovative Development of Nuclear Energy in China"
National Energy Information Platform - Data | Nuclear power units and power generation in mainland China》
Jiemian News - "China's Nuclear Power Generation Hit a Record High Last Year, Ranking Second in the World"
China News Network - "China Nuclear Energy Development Report 2023": China's Nuclear Power Safety Operation Performance Continues to Maintain International Advanced Level
CNNC - "Russia's nuclear power generation in 2022 hits a record high"