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Technology transfer and R&D efforts in the past few years say they are thinking hard about it
Everyone familiar with China's civilian nuclear energy program knows that there are three principal sources of technology coming into the country.
The first is the Russian VVER, a 1000 MW reactor which also comes in a 1200 MW model.
The second is the Westinghouse AP1000 which is an 1100 MW design.
Finally, there is the Areva EPR which weighs in at an impressive 1600 MW.
All three vendors are building reactors in China and both Westinghouse and Areva have signed licensing agreements to share their technological know-how with the Chinese.
But China has its own ideas about where to take these agreements. One of them is to explore development of an even larger reactor, a 1700 MW design that would borrow best-in-class features from its vendors' offerings.
In January 2010 the State Nuclear Power Technology Corp, held a conference to assess the state-of-the art relative to a 1700 MW reactor. The Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research & Design Institute and the State Nuclear Power Board sponsored the meeting.
According to English language media reports, the meeting considered topics like thermal reactor core physics, passive safety injection system capacity, serious accident mitigation measures, and, most importantly, how to handle the complex intellectual property rights that would be involved in transferring technology to the new design.
As a result of the meeting, and other internal government deliberations which are not transparent to the media, it became apparent that two of the major power companies in China will collaborate to build advanced, third-generation reactor designs in the city of Weihai in Shandong province.
Read the full story exclusively at CoolHandNuke online now.
Hat tip "Pro-nuclear activist" David Walters
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