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【2011.3.28 科学美国人】中国(能源)综合症:用核为减少燃煤

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 楼主| 发表于 2011-4-3 14:24 | 显示全部楼层 |阅读模式
【中文标题】中国(能源)综合症:用核为减少燃煤
【原文标题】China Syndrome: Going Nuclear to Cut Down on Coal Burning
【登载媒体】《科学美国人》(Scientific American)
【来源地址】http://www.scientificamerican.co ... -avoid-coal-burning
【译者】rhapsody & vivicat
【声明】本译文供Anti-CNN网站使用,未经AC或译者同意,谢绝转载;谢谢合作
【译文】

受日本福岛核事故警示,中国暂停了修建世界最新核反应堆的计划——但不会就此停止下来。

    NR.jpg 在核危机尚未平息的日本西面,中国东海边,坐落着规模日益扩大的秦山核电站。这里有四个新的压力水冷反应堆正在建设,而投入运行的反应堆已经有五个。秦山扩建是中国在建及获批建设的20个新核电站项目之一,这些项目其中一个目的是将核能在中国发电总量中所占的比例从2%增加到5%。根据世界核协会的说法,这意味着中国新建的核电站规模几乎占到了全世界在建核反应堆的一半。

“现在中国有13座核反应堆在运作”,负责制定能源和工业政策的政府机关,国家发展改革委员会前副主任张国宝说道——刚过去的十一月到北京国家发改委访问时,他通过翻译如是说。“相比美国和法国等国,这个数字很小,(但)我们是世界上建设新反应堆第一多的国家。”

中国新发布的五年计划要求中国能源需求取材于化石燃料以外的比例从目前的8%稍高提升到11.4%——核能在这里面就至少要单独承担4300万千瓦。此外,中国官员宣布的计划明令到2015年将中国的能源消费总量控制在40亿吨标准煤。他们还起草了“新兴能源产业发展规划”,计划在接下来十年里向包括核能在内的“新兴能源”投资7500亿美元。

但日本福岛核电站在3月11日的9.0级地震及伴随的14米高海啸过后发生了事故,这让人们有理由担忧。温家宝总理主持召开的一次国务院会议已决定暂停新核电项目的建设和审批。“会议决定暂停暂停审批核电项目”,国务院3月16日在会后发表的声明中说道。“核电发展要把安全放在第一位”。

这只是暂时性的。“煤占据了中国能源构成的大半”,今年退休的张国宝解释道。“未来近期我们的任务是增加核能和可再生能源在能源构成中的比重。”

中国现时运转的反应堆提供了接近1100万千瓦的电力——超过该国声名狼藉的三峡大坝发电量的一半。而中国还在建设25座反应堆。“到2020年,(核电)装机发电容量将能达到超7000万千瓦的水平”,张国宝说道,虽然现时五年计划的目标是到2015年将核电从1000万千瓦提升到5000万千瓦。

不过那依然只相当于燃煤发电的一小部分。“就可预见的未来而言,煤仍将在能源构成里占据一大部分”,张国宝说道。

中国特色的核能

中国新核能的未来是结合了自身和国外反应堆设计的技术。中国已经或正在建造源自加拿大的重水反应堆,源自法国的“进化型”压力水冷反应堆,在南非进行测试的卵石床反应堆,甚至还有用钍作燃料、用熔化盐冷却的反应堆。中国已经成为核工业新反应堆设计的活实验室,在实际建设中获取知识和经验。

秦山一号反应堆是中国在核反应堆设计上的首次尝试——这座压力水冷反应堆被称为CNP-300,基于西屋电气在上世纪50年代构想的设计蓝图。这类设计的最新版本,CNP-1000,融入了更多安全特性。

中国核工业集团公司(简称“中核”,CNNC)“用了10年研发自己的技术,并用自主(知识产权)技术开发出了CNP-1000”,中核公司核电部主任陈桦说道——去年秋天访问这家近于政府性质的公司在北京的总部时,他通过翻译如是说。“我们正在申请开建运用CNP-1000技术的核电站。”

不过愈发明朗的一点是,中国与西屋电气合作修建的最新设计的核反应堆——AP-1000——将可能给该国未来的大部分反应堆群提供技术蓝图。四座这样的反应堆正在该国国内建设——中国也是现时世界上唯一将这种先进核反应堆付诸实体建设的国家。如果一切照计划进行的话,第一座反应堆将在2013年启动裂变程序,而其余三座将在2016年上线。“西屋电气现时在中国有一系列竣工日期各不相同的(核)电站工程”,西屋电气首席执行官坎德利斯说道。

AP-1000造价更便宜,因为它是设计成在工厂室内制造的,对于诸如天气和人力等因素厂方就有了更大的控制能力。设计还着眼于减少铺设AP-1000所需的钢筋水泥总量,这就缩短了工期——也降低了成本。而它可能更为安全,具有一些新的特点——诸如反应堆核心上方有水箱,通风口被整合到外围建筑中——这样无需人工干预或电力就可以冷却反应堆。“我们花了数亿美元来验证水向下流”,坎德利斯解释道。此外,“你可以在现有的核电站蓝图里放进三个AP-1000。”

但中国同样渴望掌握AP-1000的技术。“通过这次合作,我相信我们的技术会得到强化”,对于同西屋电气的合作,陈桦如是评论道。

强化可以是相当直接的。中国已经开发出了自己版本的设计方案,命名为“CAP-1000”——在西屋电气根据授权协议递交的数万页设计文档的帮助下。“(我们)有技术转化和本地化的协议”,西屋电气发言人吉尔伯特说道。这也使得中国在将来可以把AP-1000反应堆的越来越多组件转移到本国生产——与韩国和法国引入西屋电气较早期设计方案的做法差不多。

法国的阿海珐集团公司——其反应堆衍生自西屋电气数十年期的蓝图——授权中国在广东省台山核电站建设两个自己设计的反应堆时显然没有走这一路线。“他们不能在未经我们允许的情况下在本国修建(反应堆),也不能用于出口”,阿海珐发言人亚当说道。“中国在建的两个(进化型压力水冷反应堆)机组进展极为顺利。我们还希望再建两个。”

“我们并未授权中国政府获取我们的技术”,身在加州、负责关键客户的阿海珐副总裁马洛补充道。但“我肯定有人会模仿设计”。中国已经有了自己版本的阿海珐设计方案——命名为“CPR-1000”。

关键在于成本。国家发改委的张国宝注意到核电站在中国可以和火电一样便宜;而火电厂进行了改造,为的是方便监视其二氧化碳排放。“中国核电站的成本低至每千瓦1500美元”,他说道。

“由于化石燃料越来越贵,新能源的相对成本越来越低”,在访问第一能源集团公司的沈阳风涡轮工厂时,这家中国发电站建造商的首席执行官吕金祥说道;而且“未来可能会对燃煤课重税或是施加严格限制。”

核燃料

阿海珐还与包括中国广东核电集团(简称“中广核”,CGNPC)、中核集团在内的几家中国核运营公司签订了合约,规定阿海珐将从现在起至2020年,向这些企业提供总价值35亿的铀燃料。作为掌控法国核燃料回收的企业,阿海珐同时也在参与中国一些自主的核设施项目,包括对甘肃省戈壁滩建造核燃料回收设施的可行性研究。“这显示了他们对核能的长期投入。”亚当说道。

与日本类似,中国计划建造此类核燃料回收设备,以充分获取现测得的17万吨国内铀资源。铀燃料回收过程包括收集用过的核燃料棒,分离钚及其他裂变副产物,随后与新铀相混合以生产出可用的燃料,该种燃料被称为混合氧化物(混氧)燃料。

同时,在阿海珐的帮助下,日本正努力让六所村回收厂投入运作,而现在他们还得依靠法国和英国回收他们用过的铀燃料棒。另外,可让燃料使用和完全回收同时进行的日本文殊快速增殖反应堆由于引起火灾以及技术故障已停机多年,其中有一台装卸料机卡在反应堆外壳中,导致了这座实验堆的关闭。
译注:据报文殊快速增殖反应堆已于2010年5月重新启动。相关链接:http://news.21cn.com/world/guojisaomiao/2010/05/06/7511066.shtml

尽管2006年以来甘肃的实验堆对用过的和燃料已经进行了有限量的回收,中国的努力是否有成效仍有待观察。“对中国而言,我们将采用循环利用的生产方式,因为我们希望能够充分利用现有资源,”中核集团核电部主任陈桦说到,“现在,我们只是暂时储备这些能源资源。”

中国还在尝试在全球范围内获取更多铀资源,从哈萨克斯坦到尼日尔、甚至于在加拿大都有中国人购买铀矿产品的订单。中广核希望收购总部设在伦敦的卡拉哈里矿业公司——为了获取非洲国家纳米比亚的铀矿。
译注:卡拉哈里矿业公司为埃克斯特拉科特资源公司的第一大股东,而后者完全控股的纳米比亚胡萨布铀矿项目为全球第五大已探明原生铀矿

安全第一

在中国,核电是少数能够替代煤的能源。该国目前已经取代美国成为世界上最大的温室气体排放国,很大程度是因为每年要燃烧超过30亿吨标准煤——而为满足能源需求,每年都有数千挖煤工人丧生,更别提烧煤产生的严重空气污染对健康所造成的影响,世界银行估计该国为此每年要花费近一千亿美元在医疗上。“建一座核电站也就是取代了一座火电站”,西屋电气的坎德利斯说道。

但是,就像国务院令和日本事故显示的那样,安全问题现在仍是核能的关键。“核对质量的要求非常严苛”,坎德利斯提醒道。“在(锻件、泵和阀等)一些须达到严格质量标准的重要组件上,他们还是存在一些问题。他们已要求我们提供设备支持,我们一直也都有能力满足他们的要求。”

这类问题不止发生在中国。2008年美国核监管委员会就曾在两台核设备中发现假冒和疑似劣质阀门、导管和电开关——均未被验证足以经受反应堆运行的苛刻环境。

发改委官员警告说短期内建造过多反应堆可能造成安全隐患。原中核集团总经理康日新,因在规模空前的核电厂扩张中涉及受贿将在狱中度过余生,这也引发了对用料安全问题的疑问。毕竟,1990年在秦山建造的首座由中国自行设计建造的核电厂,由于地基存在问题而装载反应堆的钢壳也有焊接缺陷,不得不拆除重建。

“确保核安全是产业的生命线”, 中核的陈桦说到,“在核能产业中我们都是一家人。”


【原文】

China Syndrome: Going Nuclear to Cut Down on Coal Burning

China pauses its plans to build the most new nuclear reactors in the world in the wake of the accident at Fukushima Daiichi in Japan--but will not halt them

Across the East China Sea, west of Japan and its ongoing crisis, sits the growing  Qinshan nuclear power plant, where four new pressurized-water reactors are under construction in addition to the five already operating on-site. The Qinshan addition is one of 20 new nuclear power plants undergoing construction or approved for construction in China today, part of a bid to increase the nuclear share of China's electricity-generating capacity from less than 2 percent to 5 percent. That means China is building nearly half of all the nuclear reactors under construction worldwide, according to the World Nuclear Association.

"Now in China we have 13 nuclear power reactors in operation," said Zhang Guobao, former vice chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission—the government agency charged with setting energy and industrial policy—via a translator during a visit to NDRC headquarters in Beijing this past November. "In comparison with countries like the U.S.A. and France, this number is very small, [but] we are first in the world in the construction of new nuclear reactors."

China's newly released five-year plan requires that China source 11.4 percent of its energy needs from other than fossil-fuel—at least 43 gigawatts of that to come from nuclear alone—up from slightly more than 8 percent now. Further, Chinese officials have announced plans to explicitly cap China's total energy use at four billion metric tons of coal-equivalent by 2015; they also have drafted a "New Energy Industry Development Plan" that would invest amore than $750 billion in "new energy," which includes nuclear, in the next decade.

But the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power plant in Japan following the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and subsequent 14-meter-high tsunami on March 11 has given cause for concern. A State Council meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao has put a halt to new nuclear construction and approval. "We will temporarily suspend approval for nuclear power projects," the State Council said in a statement following a meeting on March 16. "Safety is our top priority in developing nuclear power plants."

That will be temporary. "China's energy mix is dominated by coal," explained Guobao, who retired this year. "In the near future it is our priority to increase the proportion of nuclear and renewable energy in our energy mix."

China's currently operating reactors deliver nearly 11 gigawatts of electricity—or more than half the amount delivered by the nation's notorious Three Gorges Dam alone. And China is building 25 more reactors. "By 2020, installed [nuclear] capacity could reach over 70 gigawatts," Guobao said, although the current five-year plan for nuclear is to boost it from 10 to 50 gigawatts by 2015.

But that would still be only a fraction of the electricity produced by burning coal. "For the foreseeable future, coal will continue to take up a big part of our energy mix," Guobao said.

Nuclear with Chinese characteristics
China's new nuclear future is a mix of its own and foreign reactor designs. China has or is building heavy-water reactors from Canada, "evolutionary" pressurized-water reactors from France, pebble-bed reactors tested in South Africa, and even is working on reactors that would use molten salt for cooling and thorium for fuel. China has become the nuclear industry's living laboratory for new reactor designs and the learning that comes from actual construction.

Reactor No. 1 at Qinshan is China's inaugural effort at designing a nuclear reactor—a pressurized-water reactor known as the CNP-300 and based on a design conceived by Westinghouse in the 1950s. The latest iteration of that design—the CNP-1000—incorporates more safety features.

China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC) "spent 10 years developing our own technology and developed CNP-1000 technology with our own [intellectual property]," said Chen Hua, director general of the corporation's Department of Nuclear Power, via a translator during a visit last fall to the quasi-governmental company's headquarters in Beijing. "We are applying for approval to start construction with the CNP-1000 technology."

But it is increasingly clear that China's partnership with Westinghouse to build its most recent nuclear reactor design—the AP-1000—may provide the technology blueprint for the bulk of the country's future reactor fleet. Four such reactors are currently under construction in the country—now the only actual construction of such advanced nuclear power plants anywhere in the world. The first one will initiate fission in 2013 if all continues to go according to plan, and the remaining three will be online by 2016. "There are a whole bunch of Westinghouse plants in China right now of different vintages," notes Aris Candris, CEO of Westinghouse.

The AP-1000 is cheaper because it is designed to be built in a factory, indoors, where there is greater control over elements such as the weather or the workforce. The idea is also to reduce the total amount of concrete and steel needed to put up an AP-1000, which also shortens construction time—all cost savings. And it may be safer, boasting new features—such as a water tank above the reactor core and vents built into the surrounding building—that can cool a reactor without human intervention or electricity. "It took us hundreds of millions of dollars to prove that water flows down," explains Candris. Plus, "you can put three AP-1000s in an existing plant footprint."

But the Chinese are also intent on mastering the AP-1000 technology. "Through this cooperation, I believe our own technology can be enhanced," Hua said of the Westinghouse deal.

That enhancement can be rather direct. China has developed its own version of the design, dubbed the "CAP-1000"—with the help of the tens of thousands of pages of documents on the design Westinghouse handed over as part of the licensing agreement. "There is a technology transfer and localization agreements," says Westinghouse spokesman Vaughn Gilbert. That has also allowed the Chinese to shift more and more of the supply of components for future AP-1000 reactors to China itself—much as South Korea or France has done before by incorporating earlier Westinghouse designs.

That's a route the French company Areva Group—its reactors sprung from a Westinghouse blueprint decades ago—explicitly did not follow when licensing two reactors of its own design to be built in China at Taishan nuclear power plant in Guangdong Province. "They're not allowed to build domestically without our approval as well as for export," notes Jarret Adams, an Areva spokesman. "The two [evolutionary pressurized-water reactors] under construction in China are going extremely well. We're also hoping to build two more."

"We didn't authorize the Chinese government to take our technology," adds Bruce Marlow, Areva's vice president for key accounts, based in California. But "I'm sure someone will copy the design." Already, the Chinese have come up with their own version of another Areva design—dubbed the " CPR-1000".

The key will be cost. The NDRC's Guobao noted that nuclear power plants in China can be as cheap as coal-fired power that has been modified to make capturing its carbon dioxide pollution easy. "In China the cost for a nuclear power plant is as low as $1,500 per kilowatt," he said.

"The relative cost of new energy is lower and lower because fossil fuel is more and more expensive," explained Lu Jinxiang, CEO of A-Power, a Chinese builder of power plants, during a visit to the company's Shenyang wind turbine factory. And "perhaps, in the future, there will be heavy taxation or strict limit on the combustion of coal."

Nuclear fuel
Areva has also signed a contract to supply Chinese nuclear operating companies, including China Guangdong Nuclear Power Group (CGNPC) and CNNC, with uranium fuel—20,000 tons of the fissile material between now and 2020 for $3.5 billion. And Areva, which handles used nuclear fuel recycling for France, is in discussions to help with China's own plans in that regard, including the possibility of building a reprocessing plant in the Gobi Desert in Gansu Province. "It shows their long-term commitment to nuclear energy," Adams says.

Much like Japan, China plans to make the most of its estimated 170,000 tons of domestic uranium supplies by setting up such reprocessing. Such nuclear fuel recycling involves taking used nuclear fuel rods, separating out plutonium and other fission by-products, and then combining the result with fresh uranium to produce usable fuel—known as mixed oxide (MOX) fuel.

Meanwhile, Japan has struggled to bring its Rokkasho reprocessing plant online, even with the help of Areva, and currently relies on France and the U.K. to recycle its used uranium fuel rods. And Japan's Monju fast-breeder reactor—which would allow both full fuel recycling and use for power generation—has been closed for years due to fires and technical glitches, including a refueling machine stuck in the reactor vessel that has shut the experimental reactor down.

It remains to be seen if China's effort will fare any better, although a pilot plant has been reprocessing limited amounts of used nuclear fuel since 2006 in Gansu. "For China we will do it in the form of recycling because we want to make the full use of our resources," CNNC Hua's said. "Right now, we just store those energy sources temporarily."

China is also expanding its efforts to acquire more uranium globally, purchasing the products of uranium mines from Kazakhstan to Niger and even Canada. And CGNPC hopes to purchase a London-based mining firm—Kalahari Minerals—for access to uranium mines in the African nation of Namibia.

Safety first
Nuclear power remains one of the few energy sources that can replace coal in China. The nation has already overtaken the U.S. as the world's largest greenhouse gas emitter largely because of the more than three billion metric tons of coal it burns annually—and several thousand miners die each year digging up the dirty black rock to feed China's energy needs, not to mention the health toll taken by choking air pollution caused by coal burning in the Middle Kingdom, estimated by the World Bank to cost the country $100 billion a year in medical care. "Any nuclear power plant you build is displacing a coal plant," Westinghouse's Candris says.

But, as the State Council decree and accident in Japan show, safety remains the key concern for nuclear power. "Nuclear has very tight quality requirements," Candris notes. "For some of those [critical equipment like forgings, pumps and valves] they are having some problems meeting those stringent quality specifications. They have asked us to support them with that equipment, and we have been able to do that."

This is not a problem restricted to China. In 2008 the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission found fake and possibly faulty valves, pipes and electrical breakers—those not actually verified to stand up to the rigors posed by an operating reactor—at two nuclear facilities in the U.S.

NDRC officials have warned that building too many reactors too fast could pose safety risks. Already, the former head of CNNC,  Kang Rixin, will spend the rest of his life in prison due to corruption related to the unparalleled nuclear power plant expansion, which may call into question the safety of the materials used. After all, the first reactor built at Qinshan back in 1990—the first reactor ever designed and constructed entirely by the Chinese—had to be torn down and rebuilt because of faults in the foundation as well as defects in the welding of the steel vessel that contained the reactor itself.

"To secure nuclear safety is the lifeline in this industry," CNNC's Hua said. "We are all family members in the nuclear industry."

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发表于 2011-4-4 01:17 | 显示全部楼层
美国的能源综合症:黩武为独霸能源。

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发表于 2011-4-4 16:21 | 显示全部楼层
美式思维
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发表于 2011-4-5 00:41 | 显示全部楼层
声名狼藉的三峡大坝?
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