Member-only story
China’s Meltdown-Proof Nuclear Reactor Is Genius
But it’s ridiculous we don’t have the same technology.
Nuclear power is spectacular. It is statistically one of the safest forms of energy we have while also producing less carbon emissions per unit of energy than renewables, and unlike renewables, nuclear power is on demand. But, it is by no means perfect. Nuclear power is insanely expensive, partly thanks to the understandably vast safety requirements. However, the public and politicians aren’t aware of how safe nuclear power actually is, and as such, there is significant political pushback against nuclear expansion. But China has killed these two birds with one stone with their new revolutionary meltdown-resistant reactor.
But before we look at this astonishing reactor, we first need to recap how a nuclear reactor works and what a meltdown is.
It begins with nuclear fuel, which is typically uranium. Nuclear fuel is “enriched” to contain a larger amount of the isotope uranium-235 (U-235), typically so that 5% of its mass is U-235. U-235 isn’t that radioactive on its own, but it can absorb low-energy neutrons and turn into U-236. U-236 is incredibly unstable and almost instantly splits into three free neutrons, krypton, barium, and a lot of energy in the form of heat. These neutrons can go on to cause three more atoms of U-235 to split (also known as fission), allowing for a nuclear chain reaction to take place. The by-products, krypton and barium, are radioactive and split into numerous elements over thousands of years, which is why nuclear waste is radioactive.
All a nuclear power plant does is harness this heat to turn water into steam, blow this high-pressure steam through a turbine to make electricity, and control the nuclear chain reaction.
The vast majority of nuclear reactors use graphite control rods to mediate the reaction. These absorb the neutrons, dramatically slowing down the reaction. As such, inserting these rods into the reactor slows down the reaction, and removing them speeds it up.
Okay, so what is a meltdown?
Very rarely, a nuclear incident occurs where the control rods fail, and the nuclear chain reaction spirals out of control. An insane amount of heat builds up in the nuclear…
