Nuclear energy has so many uses besides generating electricity

Recently, the National Energy Administration released the statistical data of the national power industry from January to June. In the first half of this year, China's installed power generation capacity was about 2.44 billion kilowatts, of which 55.53 million kilowatts of nuclear power accounted for about 2.3%, up 6.5% year-on-year. As a clean energy source, nuclear power is playing an increasingly important role in China's economic and social development.

On March 25, 2022, in Fuzhou, Fujian province, CNNC's Hualong One demonstration project was fully completed and put into operation. Xinhua News Agency

Although China's nuclear power development started late, it has formed a high-level industrial innovation chain and industrial chain from scratch and from small to large, and its technical level and comprehensive strength have ranked first in the world. In recent years, in addition to the production of electricity, nuclear energy is also used in urban heating, industrial steam supply, seawater desalination, synthetic fuel and many other scenarios.

Yu Kaizhi, deputy general manager of China Nuclear Power Development Division of China National Nuclear Power Group, said in an interview with this newspaper that the nuclear fission process releases a lot of heat energy, which can better match the demand for high-temperature process thermal parameters in the industrial production process. The comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy is to fit various application scenarios, or convert heat energy into electricity or directly provide high-temperature process heat, and realize scientific energy use through the cascade utilization of energy, which helps to improve energy utilization efficiency. In the future, nuclear energy will shift from "single player" to "all-round assistance" and contribute more "nuclear" power to green and low-carbon development.

For industrial steam safety and energy saving

Boiling water to generate electricity with nuclear energy has always been an interesting metaphor for nuclear power by many netizens, and this analogy essentially explains the power generation principle of nuclear power plants. Yu Kaizhi explained that nuclear power plants mainly rely on nuclear fission to release energy, heat water into steam, and thus drive steam turbines to generate electricity. Among them, steam can be used not only to generate electricity, but also in industrial production.

On May 27, after 3 months of pile foundation construction, the first tank of concrete was officially poured in the energy station of Tianwan nuclear power steam power supply project, marking the country's first industrial nuclear power steam supply project - CNNC Tianwan Nuclear power steam power project. The project is jointly carried out by Jiangsu Nuclear Power Co., LTD., Lianyungang Xuwei New Area petrochemical base, using CNPC Tianwan Nuclear Power unit 3, 4 steam as a heat source, the steam will be transported to Lianyungang petrochemical industry base for industrial production and utilization, is expected to be put into operation at the end of 2023 for steam supply. After the completion of the project, the annual steam supply will reach 4.8 million tons, which can reduce the burning of standard coal by 400,000 tons per year.

"High temperature and high pressure steam is an indispensable element of chemical production. At present, the industrial steam in China's chemical industry mainly comes from coal-fired power plants or self-provided coal-fired boilers, and the use of nuclear energy will effectively reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions." China Nuclear Group Jiangsu nuclear power maintenance general manager, project leader Liu Yongsheng said.

Many people are concerned about how to ensure the safety of nuclear power supply. Liu Yongsheng introduced that the heated industrial steam is transported through an independent isolation loop, which ensures the clean safety of nuclear energy steam supply from the design source. In the whole process, there is only heat exchange, there is no medium connectivity, to ensure that the nuclear energy steam supply is clean, safe and reliable. Moreover, through the pipeline prefabrication overhead steam insulation program and other measures, the temperature loss per kilometer can be controlled less than 2 ° C and the pressure drop is less than 0.03 Mpa, effectively controlling the temperature and pressure loss during the steam long-distance transmission process, and meeting the demand for industrial steam in Lianyungang Petrochemical Industry base.

Demand for industrial heat or steam is widespread, not just in the petrochemical industry. For example, in the paper industry, the heating of some chemicals in paper production requires the use of steam, and processes such as processing and molding are also inseparable from steam. In the textile printing and dyeing industry, whether it is dyeing, drying, sizing, printing and dyeing steps, it is inseparable from the support and cooperation of steam. In the rubber industry, the process of rubber rolling, vulcanization, drying and so on must use steam. In the pharmaceutical industry, it is necessary to use a large amount of industrial steam and pure steam to sterilize raw materials, instruments and equipment at high temperature, and the drying, tablet pressing, granulation and other processes also need steam support. In the non-ferrous metal industry, the manufacturing of new energy lithium batteries also requires the use of steam to ensure the reaction temperature.