Source: Photo.com
On April 16, according to Xinhua News Agency, Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company (hereinafter referred to as "TEPCO") announced on the 15th that Japan's Nuclear Regulation Commission has approved its restart of Unit 7 of Kashiwazaki Kariwa Nuclear Power Plant in Niigata Prefecture, and in the afternoon of the same day, the reactor of the unit began to be filled with nuclear fuel.
Located in Niigata Prefecture in northwestern Japan, the Kashiwazaki Kariba Nuclear Power Plant is named after the two regions of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa, and has an installed capacity of 8,212 megawatts, making it one of the world's largest nuclear power plants in terms of net power generation.
After a serious nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011, TEPCO shut down all of its nuclear power plants, and the refilling of nuclear fuel was part of TEPCO's preparations for the restart of the plant, which is not yet known.
According to Kyodo News, the filling operation requires loading 872 fuel assemblies into the reactor's pressure vessel, and it is estimated that it will take about two weeks to complete around the clock. After the filling is complete, it will take about one month to test the function of critical equipment such as control rods and emergency core cooling system to ensure safety.
Many local people strongly opposed the restart of the nuclear power plant, saying that "TEPCO is not qualified to operate the nuclear power plant". Niigata Prefecture Governor Hideyo Hanakaku has not yet taken a position on this issue and has been calling for a broad discussion on options for ensuring the safety of local residents in the event of a nuclear accident. The chief executives of Kashiwazaki and Kariwa expressed a positive attitude towards the reopening.
According to Kyodo News, after the Fukushima nuclear accident, Japan's 12 nuclear power plants that have been restarted have only started to fill fuel after obtaining local consent, and TEPCO's operation of the Kashiwazaki Kariba nuclear power plant is rare and may cause controversy in the future.
Unlike Japan, China's nuclear power industry has gradually developed into one of the world's leading industries under the premise of strict compliance with safety regulations. According to the Blue Book of China's Nuclear Energy Development Report 2024, there are currently 55 commercial nuclear power units in China, with a total installed capacity of 57.03 million kilowatts, ranking third in the world. At the same time, China's nuclear fuel industry is also growing and developing, providing a solid foundation to support the development of China's nuclear power industry.
Nuclear fuel costs are lower
Compared with traditional energy sources such as thermal power, nuclear power has a relatively low fuel cost, is less affected by energy price fluctuations, and is cost-effective. When 1 gram of uranium-235 is fully fissioned, it produces about the same energy as 2,500 tons of standard coal.
According to data from the National Energy Administration, a 1 million kilowatt coal power plant consumes about 2 million to 3 million tons of coal a year and needs 100 train wagons per day to transport it, while a 1 million kilowatt nuclear power plant consumes about 20-30 tons of nuclear fuel per year, which can be transported by only one heavy-duty truck per year, and the power generation cost is lower than that of coal power.
CGN's nuclear fuel cost structure
The cost of nuclear fuel includes the purchase of natural uranium, uranium conversion and enrichment, fuel assembly processing and other processes, and the cost of natural uranium generally accounts for about 50% of the cost of nuclear fuel. Taking CGN as an example, natural uranium accounts for about 49% of the nuclear fuel procurement cost, enrichment and conversion accounts for about 33%, and module processing accounts for about 17%.
The mainland has taken concrete measures to address its high dependence on uranium resources
The mining, processing and supply of uranium resources are the prerequisites for the development of nuclear fuel. Nuclear fuel refers to substances that contain fissile nuclides that can achieve self-sustaining chain nuclear fission reactions in a reactor. At present, the nuclear fuel used in nuclear power plants is mainly uranium-235, which needs to reach a purity of 3% (the content of natural uranium is only 0.71%).
The mainland's dependence on foreign uranium resources exceeds 70%. Most of the continental uranium resources are unconventional uranium, which is not only low-grade, deeply buried, but also expensive to mine, so it needs to be imported from overseas, mainly Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Canada, Namibia, Niger and Australia.
The mainland is actively addressing the problem of high dependence on uranium resources. On the national side, the mainland government has strengthened international cooperation, built cooperation frameworks with neighboring countries, encouraged technological upgrading, used new technologies to find uranium deposits, built an information platform, and established a basic database for the digitization of uranium ore. In terms of enterprises, we will screen high-quality uranium resource projects around the world to find potential investment opportunities, and innovate and upgrade exploration and mining technologies.
Prospective Economist APP Information Group
For more research and analysis of this industry, please refer to the "Market Prospect and Investment Strategic Planning Analysis Report of China's Nuclear Power Equipment Industry" by Qianzhan Industry Research Institute
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