Researchers in China have developed the world's first so-called "meltdown-proof" nuclear power plant, The Independent reported.
Nuclear power is one clean alternative to dirty energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal — all of which produce massive amounts of planet-overheating air pollution. However, the development of more nuclear power plants has been hampered by public fear of catastrophic nuclear-plant meltdowns such as the widely known meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima.
While disasters like these are rare, they are still a real concern, which makes China's new "meltdown-proof" plant potentially exciting for the future of clean energy.
The researchers from Tsinghua University used several new methods to create the plant, which relies on a "pebble-bed reactor" to "mitigate the risk" of a meltdown, as The Independent reported. The reactor is cooled by helium instead of water and uses highly heat-resistant billiard-ball-sized graphite spheres filled with tiny uranium fuel particles in place of large fuel rods. Per The Independent, the materials can reach 950 degrees Celsius, or 1,742 degrees Fahrenheit, without melting.
"The design of the reactor ensures that it won't overheat to a dangerous level even if the cooling system fails," The Independent wrote. "The helium gas and graphite spheres naturally dissipate heat. ... If the reactor gets too hot, it automatically slows down the nuclear reaction, preventing any chance of a meltdown."
All that said, the Union of Concerned Scientists previously examined the prospects of non-light-water reactor (NLWR) designs in 2021, finding that they were "unlikely" to be safer.
"Based on the available evidence, we found that the NLWR designs we analyzed are not likely to be significantly safer than today's nuclear plants," wrote Edwin Lyman, the organization's director of nuclear power safety. "In fact, certain alternative reactor designs pose even more safety, proliferation, and environmental risks than the current fleet."
Though the pebble-bed design cannot be retroactively applied to new nuclear power plants, it could serve as a blueprint for future plants, the Tsinghua University scientists explained.
While wind and solar tend to garner more headlines as clean energy sources that can replace dirty energy, nuclear power also has an important role to play. One of the main challenges of replacing dirty energy lies in generating enough clean energy to meet demand, so diversifying and relying on a wider variety of sources makes a lot of sense, even if nuclear power is more worthy of safety questions compared to solar or wind.
In Wyoming, another nuclear power plant is being built on the site of a retired coal plant — that one also bills itself as being virtually meltdown-proof, by using liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water.
In addition, researchers have discovered a way to make nuclear power plants safer by getting water to boil off and evaporate at a lower temperature. Although nuclear power is already safer than many people believe, these discoveries and inventions are making it safer than ever for future generations.
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