Chinese firm makes machinery for high-temperature nuclear reactor

A Chinese heavy machinery maker has produced the world's first shielding equipment for the new generation high-temperature gas-cooled nuclear reactor (HTGR).

The first shield is expected to be installed at the beginning of 2015 in Shidaowan Nuclear Power Station under construction in east China's Shandong Province, which will be the world's first HTGR nuclear power station when it begins operation in 2017.

On Tuesday, Cao Keshun, spokesman of the Taiyuan Heavy Machinery Group Co., Ltd. (TZ), said the equipment includes a spent fuel trolley and a shielding case. In total the equipment weighs 330 tonnes and has an automatic positioning accuracy within 3 millimeters.

HTGR is an advanced nuclear reactor featuring several new safety measures. China has independent intellectual property rights over the development of the reactor in Shidaowan.

Conceptually, the HTGR has an outlet temperature of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius, Cao said. The ground trolley, which transports used fuel, and shielding case are key equipment for the reactor, allowing for fully automated operation.

The equipment consists of a traveling mechanism, shielding case, storage tank, manhole cover lifting device and other affiliated devices that enable automated operation such as shielding and cooling during the loading process.

The equipment was designed by the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology of Tsinghua University and produced by TZ.

Based in Taiyuan, capital of north China's Shanxi Province, TZ has been developing heavy equipment such as polar cranes for metallurgical, hydropower and nuclear power projects since the 1980s.