On June 7, the China National Nuclear Power (CNNP) company announced it had received approval to build its small modular reactor (SMR) demonstration plant, the APC100. The multi-purpose 125 MW pressurized water reactor, also referred to as the Linglong One, is designed for electricity production, heating, steam production or seawater desalination.
In the works since 2019, the APC100 is a miniaturized version of the company’s commercialized APC1000, according to the World Nuclear News. “The small reactor demonstration project is of great significance to promote the safe development and independent innovation of nuclear power,” CNNP said in its press release. The SMR will be built in Changjiang on Hainan Island, home to China’s home-grown Hualong 1 PWRs, construction of which began in March.
The following day, on June 8, the Russian State Atomic Energy Corporation Rosatom inaugurated the construction of the 300 MW lead-cooled BREST-OD-300 fast neutron reactor, part of its “Proryv” (Breakthrough) project to close the nuclear fuel cycle. Through the high-energy neutrons, the BREST 300 will be able to “recycle” used fuel rods. “The nuclear power industry’s resource base will practically become inexhaustible thanks to the infinite reprocessing of nuclear fuel. At the same time, future generations will be spared the problem of accumulating spent nuclear fuel,” Rosatom Director General Alexey Likhachov was quoted as saying by World Nuclear News.
“Rosatom’s newly inaugurated Pilot-Demonstration Energy Complex will combine a nuclear power plant, spent nuclear fuel reprocessing plant, and fuel re-fabrication plant all on one site for the first time in history. Russia’s fourth-generation lead-cooled fast reactor with improved safety will serve as a core of the new complex,” Sputnik reported.
https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Construction-of-demonstration-Chinese-SMR-approved; https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Russia-starts-building-lead-cooled-fast-reactor;