- HTR-10
HTR-10 is a 10 MWt prototype
pebble bed reactor atTsinghua University inChina . Construction began in 2000 and it achieved first criticality in January2003 .In 2005, China announced its intention to scale up HTR-10 for commercial power generation. The first two 250-MWt High Temperature Reactor-Pebblebed Modules (HTR-PM) will be installed at the Shidaowan plant in Shandong Province and together drive a steam turbine generating 200 MWe. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2009 and commissioning in 2013.
HTR-10 is basically a replica of the German Arbeitsgemeinschaft Versuchsreaktor (AVR). Like AVR, HTR-10 and HTR-PM are fundamentally safer, cheaper and more efficient than other nuclear reactor designs. Outlet temperature ranges between 700 C to 950 C, which allows these reactors to generate hydrogen as a byproduct efficiently, thus supplying inexpensive and non-polluting fuel for fuel-cell powered vehicles.
External links
* [http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/12.09/china.html Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom] article at
Wired News .
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.