The State Council in China recently approved the construction of 11 new nuclear power plants. Most of these new plants will be of the Hualong One design, which is the domestically designed and built version of western pressurized water reactors introduced into China many years ago. The new plants are evolutionary designs, incorporating some advanced passive safety systems for decay heat removal and containment cooling.
However, as described in the link, at least one of the new plants will be a high temperature gas cooled reactor, built at Xuwei. China recently started up one of these so-called fourth generation plants, which use pebble-type fuel that is capable of withstanding very high temperatures with no damage. They recently conducted some safety tests with this new HTR-PM plant, to ensure the reactor remained safe, even after power was shut off, which stopped reactor coolant flow, as well as stopping feedwater cooling to the steam generators.
âThe State Council greenlighted the new reactors in sites spread across Jiangsu, Shandong, Guangdong, Zhejiang and Guangxi, state-run China Energy News reported. The total investment for all 11 units will be at least 220 billion yuan ($31 billion) with construction taking about five years, according to financial publication Jiemian.â
I can not believe these cost and schedule numbers!
Vogtle 3&4 units cost more than that and took over 10 years to complete.
Maybe not even dictatorships. Iâve long said that what we really need is one-party rule for a generation or two, so that all the good and progressive things can get done ASAP. The only way to get big changes moving fast is to have near consensus to do them. #sarcasm
The Chinese government is essentially lying about the cost and schedule. In US and Europe these 11 new nuclear plants would cost $150 billion and at least 10 years per reactor to complete.
China routinely builds nuclear power plants efficiently and at reasonable costs. The build times are the easiest to monitor and confirm. Below are two examples.
Yangjiang-4 started construction (first safety-related concrete poured) on 17 Nov 2012. The plant was declared fully operational on 15 Mar 2017. This is less than 5 years construction time.
Ningde-3 started construction on 8 Jan 2010, and was fully operational on 10 Jun 2015. About 5.5 years construction time. Any time around 5 years is considered good or excellent.
The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted supply chains and construction schedules for Chinaâs nuclear power plant builds, just as the pandemic disrupted supply chains in many areas of the world. As a result, the latest plants have been coming in around 6 or 7 years construction time. As they get better at building the Hualong One design, and a few other standard designs, time of construction should come down some.
Construction costs are more difficult to nail down with accuracy, but indications are that the Chinese construction firms can build nuclear plants at relatively low cost.
From the link: China has been able to build new nuclear plants much more cheaply than many other countries. Analysts put the costs per kilowatt of installed nuclear capacity in China at around one-third of those in the US or France, Bloomberg reported.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Perhaps the best indication that Chinaâs nuclear plants are inexpensive is the fact that they keep building them, and ordering more. China currently has around 25 nuclear plants in construction. With announcements like the one that started this thread, they plan on building more and more in the future.
The key is to build many plants, not just one or two. With a large, experienced construction force, lessons are learned from one project that can then be applied to subsequent projects. The more times you practice a skill, the better you get at it. The same goes for building things. It is not a âdictatorshipâ thing. It has much more to do with experience learned from repeated construction jobs. We could do that here in the US, if we wanted to.
In a democracy, every complaint and every objection has access to the courts. Everything has to be litigated, at length, because ârule of lawâ, and âequal protection of the lawâ. That doesnât happen in a dictatorship, so the delays, and redesigns to accommodate those who objected, donât happen in a dictatorship.
As we have seen, repeatedly, laws that seem clear enough, have been questioned. Precedents, with their carefully crafted supporting arguments have been overturned. Didnât one well known lawyer say âthat depends on what the meaning of âisâ isâ.
Even if an argument is rejected by the court, because a law, or a subpoena, is clearly drawn, the case is appealed, all the way to SCOTUS, if necessary. If they lose at every stop, they make a new argument, and litigate that all the way up the system too. Wash, rinse, repeat, as the months, then years, pass, and nothing is resolved.
Well, I did say âshouldââŚ
Why donât other first world countries have this problem? They have similar court systems and appeal mechanisms.
Or is this just an inevitable artifact of a relatively free system and every country has it to some degree?