China starts building world’s first hybrid nuclear plant for 33-million-ton industrial steam
Story by Aman Tripathi
China has begun the construction of the Xuwei Nuclear Heating and Power Plant in Jiangsu Province, a project claimed to be the world’s first large-scale facility to directly couple nuclear energy with the petrochemical industry.
By pouring the first concrete for Unit 1 on Friday, China is moving beyond traditional electricity-only nuclear plants. This facility acts as a massive “clean energy engine” designed to replace fossil fuels in one of the world’s most carbon-intensive sectors: heavy chemical manufacturing.
Developed by the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), the project is the first nuclear power unit to break ground during the opening year of the country’s 15th Five-Year Plan, representing a shift toward using nuclear technology for diversified energy applications such as industrial heating and power co-generation.
A hybrid “nuclear boiler”Unlike standard plants, Xuwei uses a unique hybrid design that combines two generations of nuclear technology to meet the extreme heat requirements of industrial refineries.
This configuration integrates the Hualong One, a third-generation pressurized water reactor, with a fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor, as reported by Global Times.
The Hualong One (Gen-III) units provide the base heat to turn demineralized water into saturated steam, while the High-Temperature Gas-Cooled Reactor (Gen-IV) acts as a “super-boiler” to further heat that steam to the high temperatures required for chemical cracking and distillation.
Eliminating carbon footprint of heavy industryThe plant is located next to the Lianyungang petrochemical hub, which requires a staggering 13,000 tonnes of steam every hour to operate. By switching from coal to nuclear-generated steam, the environmental impact is drastically reduced.
Once the first phase is operational, it will supply 32.5 million tons of industrial steam annually and produce more than 11.5 billion kWh of clean electricity, effectively saving 7.26 million tons of standard coal and avoiding 19.6 million tons of CO2 emissions every year.
This is of utmost importance because in terms of emissions, nuclear-powered steam is roughly 600 times cleaner than steam produced by burning coal and 100 times cleaner than natural gas.
Advanced engineering for smart constructionTo handle the complexity of managing two different reactor types simultaneously, the project team utilized hierarchical digital simulations to design the control logic.
The physical construction is also being accelerated by intelligent automation including laser-guided tracking for automated welding and robotic Metal Active Gas (MAG) systems, which are reported to be three times more efficient than manual welding techniques.
A replicable “Chinese solution”As the first nuclear project to break ground under China’s 15th Five-Year Plan, Xuwei is intended to be a template. The China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) views this as a “Chinese solution” for global decarbonization.
“It opens a new chapter in providing a replicable and scalable “Chinese solution” for the low-carbon transformation of high-energy-consuming industries worldwide, injecting strong momentum into the realization of global carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals,” reported Global Times.
China starts building world’s first hybrid nuclear plant for 33-million-ton industrial steam
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