< h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > Japan in the shadow of the nuclear nucleus</h1>
Japan's Tokyo Electric Power Company has made a high-profile announcement that the Fukushima nuclear power plant is the safest nuclear power plant in the world.
The Japanese dared to be so determined, and they also had their confidence, and they designed four sets of emergency power supply equipment for the Fukushima nuclear power plant.
As the world's largest nuclear power plant, it has 10 boiling water reactor units. The principle of power generation in nuclear power plants is actually similar to that of thermal power, which first boils water into boiling water, and then uses steam to drive turbines to generate electricity.
It was nothing more than replacing the coal-burning boiler with a nuclear reactor, which used a fuel called uranium-235.
When the nucleus of uranium-235 is bombarded with foreign neutrons, one nucleus absorbs the other neutron and splits into two smaller nuclei, releasing 2 to 3 neutrons at the same time.
New neutrons continue to cause fission, and this chain-fission reaction of the nucleus produces a lot of thermal energy. This method is much cleaner and more efficient than coal-fired power generation.
One kilogram of uranium-235 generates electricity, more than 2 million times more than 1 kilogram of coal.
The only drawback is that nuclear waste is highly radioactive, and if the reactor fails and the nuclear waste leaks out, it will cause huge damage to the human body and the environment.
To ensure the safety of the nuclear reactor, it is first necessary to use the water turbine to water the reactor in time to cool down. Once the power outage causes the turbine to stop operating, the core of the nuclear reactor will be immediately melted down by high temperatures, followed by explosions and nuclear leaks.
If you are interested, you can learn about the nuclear leakage accident at the Chernobyl power station in the Soviet Union, which caused the reactor to heat up and explode due to human error, and finally 135,000 people died due to nuclear radiation.
Nuclear power plant accidents are not two at once, and there have been many times in the United States and Japan. With the lessons of the past, and Japan is a country with many earthquakes, the Fukushima nuclear power plant is particularly protected, not only designed four sets of emergency plans for the water turbine, but also built the nuclear power plant on a large rock disk 25 meters below the foundation, which is enough to withstand a magnitude 7 earthquake.
But what the Japanese did not expect was that they would face an epic disaster.
On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9 earthquake broke out in Japan, destroying the nuclear reactor in an instant, and a 15-meter-high tsunami followed, which not only completely destroyed the nuclear power plant facilities, but also paralyzed the power supply system.
Japan's elaborate contingency plan failed, and the nuclear power plant units exploded several times in the two days after the earthquake, and then tokyo electric power company secretly discharged nuclear wastewater from the public, resulting in a serious nuclear leakage accident.
After the Fukushima nuclear leak, the Japanese completely lost interest in nuclear power, anti-nuclear voices are increasing, and under pressure, the Japanese government can only slowly abandon nuclear power. There were still 54 nuclear power plants in 2011, and only 21 are still in operation to date.
There are also some voices against nuclear power in our country, in fact, there is really no need to regard nuclear power as a flood beast. There are two sides to everything, and the development of nuclear power can indeed solve the energy problem.
Compared with Japan, the development of nuclear power in China has an advantage, that is, the basic principle of nuclear power plants, the seismic belt, basically will not be affected by natural disasters, and nuclear waste is not impossible to solve.
Although China's nuclear power project started late, it has now gone to the forefront of the world.
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > the Daystar 2 nuclear reactor</h1>
It is China's first lead-based nuclear reactor zero-power device, which was developed by the China Atomic Energy Research Institute of China Nuclear Corporation and the Institute of Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences over a period of four years.
It can increase the efficiency of the use of nuclear fuel to 95%, and it can also recycle nuclear waste for secondary fuel. To put it simply, it can reduce both the emissions of nuclear waste and the radiation of nuclear waste, while converting them into electricity.
Daystar's two appearance quickly attracted the attention of the international community, especially Japan and the United States. Japan loves and fears nuclear power, the United States is the world's largest nuclear power, and there have been many nuclear leakage accidents.
Japan has said it is willing to spend $30 million to introduce nuclear waste treatment technology, and the United States is willing to pay $60 million. Although the money given is quite a lot, but our country still decisively rejected them, as the exclusive core technology, which is related to the national interest, not money can be measured.
For example, the United States is not willing to sell us chip manufacturing technology, but instead jams our necks by all means.
Therefore, the core technology of Daystar 2 cannot be disclosed to the United States and Japan. However, Daystar 2 is not the most advanced nuclear power technology in China, but a thorium-based molten salt reactor.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > China's fourth-generation nuclear power technology, thorium-based molten salt reactor</h1>
Thorium is also a radioactive element and a potential nuclear fuel, which has several advantages over conventional nuclear fuel.
Thorium has a shorter half-life, so the reaction speed of the thorium reactor is slower and the safety factor is relatively higher.
The reserves of thorium are also quite rich, and the proven thorium ore in China is 6 times that of uranium ore, which is 286,000 tons. According to studies, one meal of thorium is equivalent to 200 tons of uranium, and 3.5 million tons of coal produce energy.
Thorium is not yet available to make nuclear weapons and produces very little nuclear waste, so it is cleaner and more efficient than uranium nuclear reactions.
The main thing is that thorium-based molten salt reactors belong to the fourth generation of nuclear reactors. It uses a coolant that is a fluorinated salt.
When the internal temperature exceeds the predetermined value, the freezer at the bottom of the reactor will automatically melt, the nuclear fuel carried by the fluoride salt will all flow into the emergency storage tank, the reactor will automatically shut down, and the nuclear reaction will be terminated immediately, thus avoiding the explosion of the nuclear reactor at high temperatures.
Moreover, the fluorinated salts will solidify after cooling and will not leak like seawater. Since no water cooling is required, the location options for nuclear power plants are more numerous.
Thorium-based molten salt reactors can also be miniaturized, and in the future, when the technology matures, it can be applied to spacecraft, and the power and fuel problems will no longer be considered when landing on Mars.
It can also be mounted on new energy vehicles, and 8 grams of fuel can travel 1.6 million kilometers without maintenance for 100 years.
Therefore, thorium-based molten salt reactors must be the development trend of nuclear power in the future, and it is good that China is at the forefront of the world in this field. Since 2011, the Chinese Academy of Sciences has launched a Class A pilot project to study thorium-based molten salt reactor nuclear energy systems.
Led by the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the research has formed the largest scientific research team with universities, enterprises and scientific research institutions inside and outside the United Nations to jointly carry out the research and development and construction of thorium-based molten salt reactors.
On the website of the World Nuclear Organization, the research status of thorium-based molten salt reactors is updated every year, and from 2016 to 2018, it has always been written that China is leading the global research of molten salt reactors.
China has established the first thorium-based molten salt reactor experimental device in Gansu, although its output power is only 2 megawatts, just enough to point 1,000 electric furnaces.
But according to the plan, China will build a commercial nuclear power plant with 400 megawatts of thorium-based molten salt reactors in 2030, officially entering the market from the laboratory!