World’s First Small Modular Nuclear Reactor Starts Producing Energy in China
interestingengineering.com
As the country bids to become the world leader in nuclear power, it plans surpassing the U.S. in 15 years.

China connected its first small modular nuclear reactor to its power grid, making it the first country in the world to draw power from such a machine. Its small size allows for greater scalability as well as reduced operations and deployment costs.

The new modular nuclear reactor is the world's first pebble-bed modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor. Instead of heating up water, it heats helium to produce energy. The machine is designed to quickly shut down if an error occurs.

  • Quimby [any, any]M
    ·
    3 years ago

    but if we use all the helium, what will be left for my party balloons??

    • barrbaric [he/him]
      ·
      3 years ago

      IIRC there is actually a concern about running out of helium, sort of like we're running out of sand for concrete.

      • Quimby [any, any]M
        ·
        3 years ago

        yeah. it's a serious problem. and one of the reasons it pisses me off that we waste helium on stupid shit when it's such a useful and scarce resource.

        • alcoholicorn [comrade/them, doe/deer]
          ·
          2 years ago

          Helium is obtained from natural gas extraction. Most helium is left to float into space because it's not very profitable to build the infrastructure to capture it.