West cautious of China's nuclear innovations

China's nuclear power innovations have alerted countries in the West, making them apprehensive whether the country will assert itself as a global leader in climate-friendly technology if the innovations work.

This comes after a cost-effective method having the potential to recycle spent nuclear fuel in a relatively safer way was developed by China, reducing the country's dependency on fossil fuels.

A prototype "particle beam cannon" that can recycle dangerous waste produced by a nuclear reactor was built by the Institute of Modern Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported European Times.

"The accelerator-driven nuclear energy system (ADS) can efficiently solve the nuclear fuel recycling and nuclear waste safe disposal problems faced by the safe, clean and sustainable development of nuclear power, and provide an effective solution for the realisation of the 'dual carbon' goal," the institute said.

The scientists of the institute describe it as "the first key device to realise the system is the particle beam cannon - a high-current high-power accelerator".

"This work increases the intensity of continuous beam current by nearly 5 times compared with the original best index in the world, establishing my country's leading advantage in this field, and also marking that Chinese scientists have promoted the international high-current proton superconducting linear accelerator to substantially enter 10 mA- the era of continuous wave stable operation," the institute added.

Since the accelerator-driven system ADS was proposed in 1980s, this is the first time the flow intensity of the "particle beam cannon" has reached the industrialized application index and it will promote the concept of ADS from a dream into a reality, the local media reported.

In a fission reactor, energy is released when atoms of heavy isotopes are broken apart. Extra neutrons are also released and they collide with other atoms and break them apart. These broken atoms are the spent fuel and they are stored for a few centuries after cooling down for a few years. But the new reactor can recycle this spent fuel and will make it cheaper and safer to generate electricity.

"Today, China's share in all the manufacturing stages of solar panels (such as polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells and modules) exceeds 80 per cent. This is more than double China's share of global PV demand. In addition, the country is home to the world's 10 top suppliers of solar PV manufacturing equipment," an International Energy Agency (IEA) report previously said.

The country is also investing to build "a new generation of ocean-bound floating nuclear power plants, while also exploring nuclear fusion as a safer alternative to fission," the European Times added.

However, the world is cautious of China in the nuclear energy field. China's attempt to reduce the possibility of radiological leaks and uncontrolled chain reactions through the development of safer systems is being observed by many.

Japan's Fukushima and the Russian Chernobyl disasters are still fresh in the mind, it added. In June 2021, China's Taishan nuclear power plant in Guangdong province had an alleged radiation leak from failed fuel rods.