China Announces Breakthrough in Nuclear Fuel Technologies

  Chinese scientists have made a breakthrough in spent fuel reprocessing technology that could potentially solve China's uranium supply problem. The technology, developed and tested at No.404 Factory of China National Nuclear Corp in the Gobi desert in remote Gansu Province, enables the re-use of irradiated fuel and is able to boost the usage rate of uranium materials at nuclear plants by 60 fold.

  China has 171,400 tons of proven uranium reserves, a supply that can be stretched for 3,000 years with the new technology. China, as well as France, the United Kingdom and Russia, actively supports reprocessing as a means to manage highly radioactive spent fuel and as a source of fissile material for future nuclear fuel supplies.

  China is planning a massive push into nuclear power in an effort to wean itself off coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel. It now has 12 working reactors with 10.15 gigawatt (GW) of total generating capacity.

  China has set an official target of 40 GW of installed nuclear generating capacity by 2020, but the government indicated it could double the goal to about 80 GW, as faster expansion was one of the more feasible solutions for achieving emissions reduction goals.

  As such, more than 60 percent of the uranium needed for China's nuclear power plants will need to be sourced from overseas by 2020, even if the country moves forward with only a modest nuclear expansion plan.