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.

  • 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.