Page 10 - AsiaElec Week 48

AsiaElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AsiaElec
NUCLEAR
China starts up first nuclear
cogeneration project at
AP1000 plant
China has started up its first commercial nuclear cogeneration system, using two newly operational AP1000 reactors at the Haiyang Nuclear Power Plant to heat 700,000 square meters of housing.
Shandong Nuclear Power Co. (SDNPC),
a subsidiary of State Power Investment Corp. (SPIC), and owner of the Haiyang plant, on Nov. 15 said the first phase of the Shandong Haiyang Nuclear Energy Heating Project was formally put into operation.
Details about how Haiyang is producing heat are unclear. Generally, in a nuclear cogeneration process, a coolant recovers the thermal energy released by fission in the reactor core. That energy is usually converted into electrical power through a turbine generator, but when heat is part of the final use, it can be used directly for district heating and cooling, process steam, desalination, hydrogen, or steel manufacturing.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which published guidance on nuclear energy cogeneration this September, notes that combined heat and nuclear power is
not new, though interest in it is growing. About 43 nuclear reactors around the world generate district heating, most which are in Eastern Europe and Russia; about 17, in Japan, Kazakhstan, and the U.S., desalinate water; and industrial non-electric applications have been achieved at seven reactors in Canada, Germany, India, and Switzerland.
In total, nuclear cogeneration projects around the world have to date accumulated nearly 750 operating years of experience— which compares to 17,000 reactor years of experience for civil nuclear power. Of reactors that today provide district heating, heat power
output ranges 5 MWth to 240 MWth, the IAEA says. The total distributed heat power is around 5,000 MWth, according to the IAEA, which corresponds to an average energy withdrawal of less than 5%. “This means that, even if running in cogeneration mode, the primary output of the reactor is still electrical power,” it explained.
The Haiyang project is important for
two reasons: It leverages energy from newly constructed third-generation reactors—some of the first AP1000s completed to date; and its success will serve as a blueprint for nuclear energy diversification and a “clean” heat expansion in China, which has 45.6 GW of installed nuclear capacity and has another 11 GW under construction.
SNC-Lavalin heads back
to China for work on new
nuclear reactors
SNC-Lavalin subsidiary Candu Energy
Inc. has been awarded a contract by China National Nuclear Power Co. Ltd. (CNNP) for pre-project work on CNNP’s Advanced Heavy Water Reactor (AHWR) programme.
SNC-Lavalin said CNNP hopes to build two AHWRs in or around 2021.
Candu Energy will produce the top-level licensing basis document (LBD) and outline regulatory and safety requirements applicable to the design, analysis, construction, commissioning and operation of the AHWR.
SNC-Lavalin has long hoped to play a major role in Chinese nuclear power. It holds the license of the Candu reactor technology, and two Candu reactors went online in 2002 and 2003 at China’s Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant (pictured).
In 2016 it signed an agreement in principle with China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) and Shanghai Electric Group Company Ltd to develop the Advanced Fuel
Candu Reactor (AFCR).
Now the company said the AHWR is a
third-generation 700MW reactor that “builds on legacy Candu tradition”.
It said adaptations include enhanced active and passive safety systems and standardised design for reduced maintenance and capital costs.
CNNP operates several nuclear plants in China and is majority owner of Qinshan.
COAL
More insurers withdraw from coal projects
The number of insurers withdrawing cover
for coal has more than doubled in 2019 as the industry’s retreat from the sector accelerates and spreads beyond Europe, the Unfriend Coal campaign has revealed in its third annual scorecard on insurance, coal and climate change.
Coal exit policies have been announced by 17 of the world’s biggest insurers controlling 46% of the reinsurance market and 9.5% of the primary insurance market. Most have refused to insure new mines and power plants, while industry leaders have ended cover for existing coal projects and the companies that operate them, and adopted similar policies for tar sands.
Action has escalated since international NGOs launched the Unfriend Coal campaign in 2017. The first three companies announced that they were withdrawing insurance for
coal that year, followed by four in 2018, and a further 10 in 2019 – including the first US and Australian insurers.
Insurers have also divested coal from roughly $8.9 trillion of investments – over one-third (37%) of the industry’s global assets. To date, at least 35 companies have taken action, up from 15 companies with $4 trillion assets under management in 2017-19 with $6 trillion in 2018.
The climate science institute, Climate Analytics, calculates that holding global temperature rise to 1.5°C will require global coal combustion to peak by 2020, fall by 80% below 2010 levels over the next decade, and end before 2040.
Peter Bosshard, Coordinator of the Unfriend Coal campaign, said: “The role of insurers is to manage society’s risks – it is their duty and in their own interest to help avoid climate breakdown. The industry’s retreat from coal is gathering pace as public pressure on the fossil fuel industry and
its supporters grows. However, major US and Asian insurers continue to undermine
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Week 48 04•December•2019