Nuclear energy has so many uses besides generating electricity

In the view of Zou Zhengyu, general manager of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, the nuclear heating project uses the surplus thermal power of the units of Qinshan Nuclear Power Base in winter to provide large-scale safe, zero-carbon and economic nuclear heating for public facilities, residential communities and industrial parks in Haiyan County without affecting the original generation and safety performance of the units. It has truly achieved a win-win situation for local residents, local governments, nuclear power enterprises and ecological environmental protection.

Innovation goes far beyond that. On the basis of more than 50 years of safe and stable operation of swimming pool research reactor, CNNC has independently developed a safe, economic and green stacking product for urban heating in northern China - "Yanlong" swimming pool reactor. Yu Kaizhi introduced that "Yanlong" swimming pool stack has outstanding characteristics such as high inherent safety, clean environmental protection, and strong pipe network adaptation. A 400 MW "Yanlong" low-temperature heating reactor, heating construction area of 20 million square meters, can cover 200,000 families.

At present, the demonstration project of "Yanlong" swimming pool type low-temperature heating reactor has been included in the "14th Five-Year Plan" of Jilin Province. Experts said that in some areas where there is no nuclear power plant nearby, the pool type low-temperature heating reactor is very suitable, its high safety factor can meet the heating demand within a certain range, but also can solve the air pollution problem caused by loose coal heating.

Inject nuclear energy into various fields

Not long ago, the world's first commercial reactor carbon-14 irradiation production target, in the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant No. 2 heavy water reactor unit, which is controlled by China Nuclear Power Group, began commercial reactor production of carbon-14 isotopes, is expected to begin to supply to the market in 2024, and the output can meet domestic demand. This is another important breakthrough in the comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy.

What is carbon-14? What can it be used for? What does it have to do with our lives? Originally, the carbon that exists in nature, such as common graphite, diamonds, pencil leads, etc., are carbon-12. In addition, it has some isotopic brothers, such as carbon-11, carbon-13, and carbon-14, which all have six protons in their nuclei and different numbers of neutrons. Carbon-12 is stable, carbon-14 is radioactive.

"The use of carbon-14 radioactive labeling and detection can detect Helicobacter pylori and carry out pharmacokinetic studies." Meng Zhiliang, senior engineer of Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant of China National Nuclear Corporation, said carbon-14 is often used as a marker and is widely used in agriculture, chemistry, medicine, biology and other fields. For example, by adding carbon-14 to pesticides, the residual amount of pesticides can be determined by detecting the content of carbon-14 on crops in the later stage.

China has previously used small reactors for experimental research to produce carbon-14, but the output is small and the production is not continuous, unable to form a stable supply, said Fan Shen, a senior engineer at China National Nuclear Group's Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant. The use of commercial nuclear power units can maintain long-term high power stable operation and continuous production of carbon-14.

"Take the diagnosis and tracking of Helicobacter pylori, the current annual demand for Helicobacter pylori testing in China exceeds 30 million people, and the market cannot be underestimated." Yu Kaizhi said that the major breakthrough made by CNNC in the production of medical isotopes will effectively solve and alleviate the problem of domestic carbon-14 isotope supply, and make new contributions to the establishment of a stable and independent medical isotope supply security system and improve people's health.

In addition to making full use of existing nuclear power units to carry out comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy, CNNC also actively develops advanced nuclear energy systems through scientific and technological innovation, and expands more new scenarios for comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy. For example, on July 13, 2021, CNNC's Hainan Changjiang Multi-purpose modular small Reactor technology Demonstration Project officially began construction, becoming the world's first onshore commercial modular small reactor to start construction.

Yu Kaizhi introduced that "Linglong 1" (ACP100) technology is a multi-functional modular small pressurized water reactor type independently developed by CNNC through more than 10 years and with independent intellectual property rights. It is characterized by miniaturization, modularity, integration, and passive, and can be used as a clean distributed energy source. At the same time, it can meet the application needs of seawater desalination, district heating, industrial heating (cold) and other fields.