Both nuclear reactors of the High-Temperature Gas Cooled Reactor-Pebble-bed Module (HTR-PM) at the Shidaowan plant in China’s Shandong province have reached criticality for the first time. The HTR-PM has two 250 MW thermal reactors that drive a single 210 MWe turbine.
Commercial 600 MWe pebble bed reactors (6×250 MWt, total 655 MWe) will follow.
the HTR-PM600 plan was in a 2017 presentation.
The HTR-PM600 commercial system will have less than 40% of the costs for the HTR-PM. This would have costs of about $2500 per KWe. The 600 MWe unit would cost $1.5 billion if that cost target could be reached.
SOURCES- World Nuclear News, IAEA
Written by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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