China National Nuclear Corp. and Terrapower will build the first unit in China and then deploy commercial versions of the sodium-cooled fast reactor to global markets within 15 years.
Bill Gate’s long and tireless efforts to close a deal with China National Nuclear Corp. have finally paid off. The company has inked a deal to build a first-of-a-kind unit of their sodium cooled fast reactor in China and then manufacture a commercial version of it.
Zhimin Qian, President of China National Nuclear Corp. signed the deal with Lee McIntire, CEO of TerraPower at a U.S. Trade and Investment Cooperation Conference held in Seattle on September 22.
According to the Associated Press, Bill Gates “stole the spotlight at a gathering of Chinese and U.S. business people and officials” in Seattle on September 22 after TerraPower and the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) formally agreed to jointly pursue next-generation nuclear power.
AP reported that Gates told the audience the agreement “is something I think exemplifies the U.S. and China working together well.”
TerraPower’s traveling wave reactor (TWR) is designed to be a 1150 megawatt-electric liquid sodium-cooled fast reactor that uses depleted uranium as fuel.
According to a fact sheet on the company’s web site, it will greatly simplify the current nuclear fuel cycle by reducing the need for uranium mining, enrichment facilities, reprocessing plants and storage facilities.
This will result in cost savings, enhanced safety, reduced toxic waste, greater ease in waste disposal and and weapons proliferation resistance. See also the multi-media page at Terrapower for additional fact sheets, images, and videos.
Gates has been in talks with CNNC for years. He called the memorandum of understanding they signed “a milestone.” However, details were not released as to the schedule or cost of actually building the first unit. The agreement extends an arrangement approved by the US Department of Energy in 2013 which allows technical collaboration between US firms and China on TerraPower’s technology.
WNN reported that in January 2013 a prototype TWR-P was being discussed as a TerraPower-SNERDI joint project, and the US Department of Energy had negotiated an agreement with China “that would facilitate the joint development of TWR technology,” including standing wave versions of it.
The first TWR is expected to demonstrate key plant equipment, qualify the fuel and materials for longer term use, and provide the technical, licensing and economic basis for commercial TWRs. This prototype is expected to be constructed between 2018 and 2023. After testing and optimization, commercial plants are expected to be licensed with start up in the late 2020s or early 2030s.
On his last trip to Beijing, which took place last February of this year, Gates met with Nur Bekri, a vice chair of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, and with China National Nuclear Corp chairman Sun Qin. China National Nuclear Corp is one of the country’s largest nuclear power company and a major Chinese partner of TerraPower. The two firms first announced an intent to cooperate on fast reactor designs in 2012.
The TWR is an advanced nuclear energy technology that TerraPower’s founders began working on as early as 2006. The company was founded in 2008 with the mission to identify and develop energy technologies that could offer cleaner, sustainable, baseload electricity that would be safe and cost-efficient.
By recent counts, TerraPower has about 120 full time staff in Bellevue and over 100 U.S. based technical consultants and partners.
Separately, Terrapower also announced it is working with the Idaho National Laboratory to develop and test fuel slugs to be used in the TWR.
China to build 600 MW fast reactor as pilot plant
According to English language news media in China, that country’s government plans to begin building a pilot fast nuclear reactor in Fujian province in 2017.The report first appeared in Shanghai’s China Business News in mid-August.
According to that report, Xu Mi, a frequently cited researcher at the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said construction of a pilot project for a fast neutron reactor in Fujian’s Xiapu province is set to begin at the end of 2017. The pilot plant will be a full scale facility with a capacity of 600 MW.
This isn’t the first fast reactor project in China. In 2011 World Nuclear News reported a prototype 20 MW sodium-cooled fast reactor was connected to the grid in Fujian province. The current project is reported to be an outgrowth of the prototype effort. World Nuclear News updated their profile of China’s work on fast reactors on July 29th of this year.
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