An aboveground pipeline travels a distance of 15 miles to dispatch the nuclear powered steam.
Aerial shot of the Tianwan nuclear power station that supplies nuclear powered steam. Power Generator
In a move away from fossil fuels, China has begun addressing its industrial demand with nuclear power instead of coal. The Tianwan Nuclear Power Station in Jiangsu province has begun to supply nuclear-powered steam to the Lianyungang Petrochemical Industry Base, and the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) confirmed this week.
In its bid to achieve net zero emissions by 2060, China is using a multi-pronged approach and diversifying its sources of clean energy. The Asian country has already built some of the biggest solar power plants in the world but has also invested heavily in the construction of multiple nuclear-powered plants.
The nuclear-powered plants aim to meet industrial demands for heat and energy, replacing the coal-fired power that has so far propelled China’s growth over multiple decades. In 2022, Interesting Engineering reported that China was building a nuclear-powered steam supply project at a cost of US$108 million.
Two years later, the project construction has been completed and the plant went online this week.
The nuclear-powered steam project, dubbed Heqi No 1, was built by the CNNC, a state-owned enterprise. It uses nuclear power to turn cooling water into steam in a high-pressure generator that boils water from a desalination plant.
The steam generated is then sent nearly 15 miles (23.3 km) via an above-ground pipeline to the Lianyungang Petrochemical Industry Base, where, after going through multiple heat exchange systems, it will be used to meet the heating requirements of the area’s industries.
For enhanced safety, the project will constantly monitor the radioactivity levels of the steam and is designed to shut down immediately in case of an anomaly, the CNNC told the South China Morning Post.
At its peak, the project will deliver 4.8 million tonnes of steam annually to the industrial base.
By switching from coal to nuclear power, Heqi No 1 is estimated to save 400,000 tons of coal from being burnt. This will potentially cut over a million tonnes of carbon dioxide, 184 tonnes of sulfur dioxide, and 263 tonnes of nitrogen oxide emissions.
For the petrochemical industry, the move will also help save on the allowances for more than 700,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, which would require planting trees over 2,900 hectares of land.
Unlike Western countries, which are looking to adopt a radical shift in energy sourcing, China’s strategy to achieving net zero emissions is more diversified and includes a fair share of nuclear power. It has already pushed the US to the second spot in nuclear adoption but is also extending its usage beyond the industrial domain.
In November 2022, a nuclear-powered district heating project came online in the Liaoning province in northeast China. The SCMP report added that the country plans to incorporate nuclear-powered energy consumption in other fields, such as agriculture, medicine, and environmental protection.
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Generator Ricardo Ameya Paleja Ameya is a science writer based in Hyderabad, India. A Molecular Biologist at heart, he traded the micropipette to write about science during the pandemic and does not want to go back. He likes to write about genetics, microbes, technology, and public policy.