Nuclear energy has so many uses besides generating electricity

Just on July 15, Zhejiang Haiyan Nuclear energy heating demonstration project (second stage) industrial heating project started smoothly, is expected to be completed by the end of August this year, can provide 24-hour heat supply security, annual industrial heating about 288,000 GJ. This is equivalent to saving about 10,000 tons of standard coal and reducing carbon dioxide emissions by about 24,000 tons, which will achieve a win-win situation for industrial development and energy conservation and carbon reduction. In the future, more and more industries will use nuclear steam.

Heating for residents clean and warm

Similar to the principle that provides steam for industry, nuclear power also provides heating for residents in the winter. The first stage of Zhejiang Haiyan nuclear heating demonstration project is the civil heating project. In fact, two small towns in north and south China - Haiyan in Zhejiang Province and Haiyang in Shandong province - used nuclear energy to heat their homes last winter.

On November 9, 2021, Haiyang entered the heating season ahead of schedule, and residents in the new and old urban areas used nuclear energy for heating, with a heating area of 4.5 million square meters. Relying on the clean heat provided by "warm core No. 1", Haiyang City bid farewell to the history of coal-fired heating that lasted for many years and became the first zero-carbon heating city in the country.

As a national initiative, the nuclear heating project has no ready-made experience to refer to, and every step of technical research is creating history. Can "clean electricity" produce "clean heat"? In order to accumulate experience and create a model, Shandong Nuclear Power gathered the China Nuclear Energy Industry Association, Tsinghua University, Electric Power Planning and Design General Institute and other "big coffee level" expert team to review the engineering feasibility report, after intense questioning and discussion, the technical program was unanimously approved by experts.

On July 10, 2019, the Haiyang Nuclear heating phase I project officially started, including the construction of the first station for nuclear heating and heat exchange and the laying of a 15-kilometer main network, which was completed on September 30 of that year. In the heating season of 2019-2020, a total of 7,757 households of 700,000 square meters in Lingang, resort areas and nuclear power industrial Park in Haiyang City used nuclear energy for heating. The whole heating season ran smoothly, was in good condition, and the user's room temperature was suitable, which was praised by the majority of users and all walks of life. In 2020, Shandong Nuclear Power has opened the research work to promote large-scale long-distance heating. On November 9, 2021, the warm current brought by the comprehensive utilization of nuclear energy was transported to thousands of households in Haiyang City.

"Just after the heating, the temperature in the house reached 23 ° C." Haiyang Jinyang coastal garden community resident Cheng Jingzeng said. With nuclear energy heating, the heating cost of residential buildings has also been reduced from the original 22 yuan/square meter to 21 yuan/square meter.

Then, on December 3, 2021, the first phase of the first nuclear energy heating project in southern China - Zhejiang Haiyan Nuclear energy Heating Demonstration Project was officially put into operation, with a heating area of 460,000 square meters. Nearly 4,000 residents of the three residential areas of Haiyan Nuclear Power New Village, Nuclear Power Nanyuan and Maple Leaf New Village took the lead in "pioneering", using zero-carbon, clean and efficient "nuclear heating". This also means that southern China has opened the history of nuclear energy heating, and from now on, winter and cold resistance no longer rely on "shaking".

As of April 2022, the demonstration project has completed the first heating season task, and has continued to provide heating for nearly 4,000 households for 100 days in a safe and stable manner, and the heating price has been reduced by about 1/3 compared with the past while the heating quality has been improved. It is estimated that by the end of the "14th Five-Year Plan", after the project is completed and put into operation, it can meet the heating demand of about 4 million square meters of Haiyan, which can save 196 million degrees of electricity consumption per year compared to the electric heating method in the southern region.

Nuclear heating is not only clean, but also safe. "Nuclear heating is the extraction of part of the steam from the nuclear power unit, and the heat is heated several times through the heat exchange station, the whole process only two steps: steam heating water and water heating water." Huang Qian, secretary of the Party Committee and chairman of the Qinshan Nuclear Power plant, said that there are multiple loops between the nuclear power plant and the user, only the transfer of heat between each loop, there is no exchange of water, there will be no radioactive substances into the heating pipe, and the hot water is only closed in the community, isolated from the nuclear power plant layers, without any contact.