The China Experimental Fast Reactor (CEFR) is
China's first
fast nuclear reactor, and is located outside
Beijing
}
Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...
at the
China Institute of Atomic Energy.
It aims to provide China with fast-reactor design, construction, and operational experience, and will be a key facility for testing and researching components and materials to be used in subsequent fast reactors.
The reactor achieved first criticality on July 21, 2010
and started generating power a year later on July 21, 2011.
In October 2012 Xinhua announced that the CEFR has passed official checks.
The CEFR was brought to full power at 5.00pm on 15 December 2014 and operated at this level continuously for three full days.
CEFR is a 65
MW thermal, 20 MW electric, sodium-cooled, pool-type reactor with a 30-year design lifetime and a target
burnup
In nuclear power technology, burnup (also known as fuel utilization) is a measure of how much energy is extracted from a primary nuclear fuel source. It is measured as the fraction of fuel atoms that underwent fission in %FIMA (fissions per ini ...
of 100 MWd/kg.
The CEFR was built by Russia's
OKBM Afrikantov
OKBM Afrikantov (full name: OAO I. I. Afrikantov OKB Mechanical Engineering, russian: Опытное конструкторское бюро машиностроения им. И. И. Африкантова) is a nuclear engineering com ...
in collaboration with
OKB Gidropress
OKB Gidropress (russian: ОКБ Гидропресс) is a Russian state construction office which works on the design, analysis, development, and production of nuclear power plant reactors, most notably the VVER range. OKB stands for experimenta ...
, NIKIET and
Kurchatov Institute
The Kurchatov Institute (russian: Национальный исследовательский центр «Курчатовский Институт», 'National Research Centre "Kurchatov Institute) is Russia's leading research and developmen ...
.
The CEFR project was approved by the Chinese State Council in 1992, with final approval given in 1995.
The China Experimental Fast Reactor is one of the major energy projects under
863 Program
The 863 program () or State High-Tech Development Plan () was a program funded and administered by the government of the People's Republic of China intended to stimulate the development of advanced technologies in a wide range of fields for th ...
, the national high-tech research and development program. The China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) is the organizer of the project's construction.
Japan's Atomic Energy Agency (AEA) reported that the reactor stopped generating electricity in October 2011 following an accident; however, the director of the China Institute of Atomic Energy (CIAE) denied that any accident had occurred.
See also
*
Nuclear power in China
China is one of the world's largest producers of nuclear power. The country ranks third in the world both in total nuclear power capacity installed and electricity generated, accounting for around one tenth of global nuclear power generated. N ...
*
CFR-600
References
{{Nuclear power in the PRC
Nuclear reactors
Nuclear technology in China