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.

  • I_Voxgaard [comrade/them]
    ·
    3 years ago

    The machine is designed to quickly shut down if an error occurs.

    But the HBO special Chernobyl told me that fail-safes don't work!

    I like how that line had to even be included pre-emptively.

    • zifnab25 [he/him, any]
      ·
      3 years ago

      The problem of turning off a nuclear reactor once it has been turned on is the biggest hurdle to small-scale deployment.