An energy crisis, activate the global trillion nuclear power market

Although it is difficult to be so "beautiful" and maintain a growth rate of more than double digits, nuclear power has its own basic disk.

Nuclear power is a low-carbon, efficient and clean energy source, with carbon dioxide emissions of 12g/kWh, close to the emissions of wind energy. And nuclear power is the most efficient way of generating electricity. From 2018 to 2021, the average annual utilization hours of nuclear power in China are more than 7,000 hours, which is much higher than the utilization hours of wind power generation, which is not more than 3,000 hours. In addition, nuclear power is not affected by the season and the environment, and the economy is slightly worse than hydropower, but it is good that it is not selected geographical location.

Looking at the history of the development of nuclear power in the world, since the 1950s, nuclear power has generally experienced five stages: experimental demonstration, high-speed promotion, slow development, gradual recovery, and cautious development. If you consider the current warming trend, global nuclear power is entering a new stage of development.

Behind every cooling, it comes from the straitjacket on the head - nuclear safety accidents.

For example, after the 1980s, due to the Three Mile Island nuclear accident in the United States in 1979 and the Chernobyl accident in the former Soviet Union in 1986, nuclear power construction in some countries was "frozen"; In 2011, Japan's Fukushima nuclear accident occurred, and poured cold water on the recovery of the world's nuclear power. Germany, Switzerland and other countries have put forward the idea of "nuclear abolition", and Japan has also proposed a "zero nuclear power" attitude.

But the technological iterations and advances of nuclear power have acted as catalysts for each accident.

In the 1980s, nuclear power suppliers in the United States and Europe together with relevant agencies successively launched the "Advanced Light water Reactor User Requirements Document" (URD) and the "European User Requirements for light water reactor nuclear power plants" (EUR), which put forward new requirements such as strengthening measures to prevent and mitigate serious accidents and improving human factors, and the concept of the third generation nuclear technology took shape. In 2016, the fourth generation of nuclear technology represented by high-temperature gas-cooled reactors emerged, and after this generation, the efficiency of nuclear fuel use has been improved, the half-life of nuclear waste has been reduced, and the safety of nuclear energy use has been improved.

Safety concerns have to do with how nuclear power works.

There are four types of nuclear reactions: nuclear fission, nuclear fusion, particle bombardment and nuclear decay, of which the fission chain reaction is the power generation principle of nuclear energy. By absorbing a neutron, the nucleus of a larger atom (uranium) will split into multiple smaller nuclei, releasing two or three neutrons and huge energy, and the newly generated neutrons continue to participate in nuclear fission, and continue to produce new energy.

In essence, it is the energy conversion process of nuclear energy - thermal energy - mechanical energy - electrical energy.

The structure of nuclear reactors is diverse, and can be divided into different types of nuclear reactors according to the distribution of neutron energy and the type of coolant. Including thermal reactor, fast reactor. If it is classified according to coolant, it can be divided into gas cooled reactor, liquid cooled reactor and liquid metal cooled reactor. Gas-cooled reactors include carbon dioxide cooling and helium cooling. Liquid cooled reactor mainly includes light water cooled pressurized water reactor and boiling water reactor, and heavy water cooled heavy water reactor. The reactors cooled by liquid metal are mainly those cooled by sodium and sodium-potassium alloys.

From an international perspective, South Korea, South Africa, Russia, France, Ukraine, Finland, Belgium, the United States and other countries are more active in nuclear power, and nuclear energy has made great contributions to the carbon reduction of Western developed countries such as Europe and the United States.

In the European energy crisis, although France is the second largest energy consumer in Europe, the extent of the impact is much lower than Germany. The reason is that, unlike Germany, France is the world's second largest producer of nuclear energy after the United States. In the primary energy consumption, the share of nuclear energy is relatively high, of which 36.5% in 2021. But French nuclear power also has weaknesses: most of its 56 reactors were built 50 years ago and suffer from severe aging equipment. In recent years, almost half have been closed for maintenance.

French President Emmanuel Macron has said that France will build 14 new nuclear power units from 2028 and no more existing nuclear reactors will be closed.

03 From the introduction to technology leadership, China's nuclear power triple jump