Articles

R&D on Nuclear Safety and Severe Accident Mitigation in China

X. Cheng

Abstract

Recently China issued an ambitious program of mid-term nuclear power development. It is expected that the total nuclear power installation will be around 200GW by 2030 and around 400GW by the middle of this century. Nuclear safety has been well recognized having the top priority in the nuclear power development, especially after Fukushima accident. Nuclear safety and severe accident research activities have been growing rapidly in recent years. Numerous projects financed by the Chinese central government, local government and nuclear industries were launched. In the frame of the “National Large Scale Project”, many projects were initiated and research infrastructure was constructed. More recently the National Energy Administration approved research projects in direct connection with the Fukushima accident. According to the newly issued Nuclear Safety Plan a much larger scale of infrastructure and community will be established for nuclear safety research. The nuclear safety research community is expanding strongly in recent years. It covers nearly nuclear industries, research centers and universities. To some degree the R&D activities in China are well coordinated. There is tight collaboration and interaction among this community. This paper gives an overview about Chinese nuclear power technology development and the R&D activities in nuclear safety and severe accident mitigation. Two R&D projects ongoing at Shanghai Jiao Tong University are selected as examples, to outline some features of nuclear safety research in China.

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