On Thursday August 10, the installation of the core reactor of Linglong One, the world's first commercial small modular reactor (SMR), was completed in the southern Chinese island of Hainan.
The project is a multi-purpose small modular pressurized water reactor developed by China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC). It's the world's first of this type of reactor to be approved by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and it is destined to serve the region's diverse power needs.
SMRs have been suggested as one way to provide clean power and reduce carbon emissions. Unlike conventional nuclear power stations they should be cheaper and quicker to build, and also produce less waste. Many designs are being prototyped around the world, but China is the closest to having a commercial example running.
Work on the reactor began at the Changjiang power plant on the southern island of Hainan in 2021 and it is expected to be completed by 2026. Once completed, the 125 MW power plant will be capable of producing one billion kilowatt hours of electricity every year, enough to meet the needs of 526,000 households. An important application of the power will be desalination to provide fresh water for the island.
Wu Qiong, a technician with the manufacturing company, told the Chinese Xinhua News Agency: “Through independent innovation, we have broken through a number of key technologies and achieved engineering applications.”
Currently, more than 70 commercial small modular reactors are being developed around the world, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), including in Argentina, Russia and South Korea. The hopes are that the technology will be cheaper and quicker to implement than conventional large reactors, which seem to always go over budget and take a long time to build.