China reports breakthrough in reprocessing technology

Mon, 03 Jan 2011

Beijing - Chinese scientists have achieved a breakthrough in nuclear fuel reprocessing technology, effectively increasing its nuclear fuel reserves by making their use 60 times more efficient, state media reported Monday.

The new technology for extracting uranium and plutonium from spent fuel rods, developed by the China National Nuclear Cooperation, would help stretch uranium reserves to 3,000 years, up from current estimates of 50 to 70 years, CCTV reported.

"We need to reprocess the spent fuel during the heating period to extract the recyclable part from burned material, as well as the newly generated part through a series of chemical processes," CNNC chief engineer Wang Jian was quoted as saying. "The next step is fuel assembly."

The facility had been developed "100 per cent" by Chinese engineers after 24 years of research, the report stressed.

France, Britain, Russia and China have each developed their own closely guarded reprocessing technologies.

China has been concerned over fuel supplies for its nuclear power program, which Beijing plans to expand to meet swiftly rising electricity demand.

The country is the world's largest energy consumer, consumer of coal and greenhouse gas emitter.

China is building 12 new reactors and 24 are in the planning stage. Both figures are more than in any other country.

According to the International Atomic Energy Agency, China produced 70,000 gigawatts of electricity from nuclear plants and Beijing wants to increase its nuclear energy capacity eightfold by 2020, when it plans to supply 6 per cent of its energy needs from nuclear power.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/360501,reports-breakthrough-reprocessing-technology.html.