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.

  • 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.