Eliminating nuclear meltdowns

CNNC

Chinese reactor completes world-first passive cooling test

CHINESE engineers have made a nuclear safety breakthrough by shutting off power to the cooling systems of two large-scale nuclear reactors and showing their design can’t meltdown because it passively cools itself.

Conventional nuclear reactors in use today rely on powered systems to remove excess heat. During an emergency, if the water or CO2 used as coolant can’t be pumped through the reactor then the heat given off by the radioactive fuel can build up and damage the reactor.

“Whether it be due to design flaws, equipment failure or human error, all the world’s major nuclear reactor accidents such as 3 Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, have occurred because reactors have overheated, causing meltdown, with a subsequent release of radioactive material to the environment,” says nuclear safety expert Geoff Gill.

Turn off the power