Since December 2023, the first commercial pebble bed reactor in China has been producing electricity. This is no longer a small test reactor, but a real nuclear power plant. In contrast to conventional nuclear power plants, however, the temperatures in this pebble bed reactor are twice as high, at up to 750 °C. Nevertheless, it is said to be safer. Tests have now been carried out on this reactor with all cooling systems turned off. The reactor type should be able to cool itself down in an emergency and thus be safe. Today we will look at whether these reactors are really safer, how new the idea really is – in Germany, there have been reactors like this before – and whether they will catch on in the future.
This video was created in my editorial team. Editors responsible: Valentin Bruder, Jacob Beautemps;
Editing: Aron Kamenz, Sören Rensch, Neo Sanjuan Thiele
Sources:
Source 1:
https://www.base.bund.de/DE/themen/kt/ausstieg-atomkraft/ausstieg_node.htmlSource 2:
https://www.worldnuclearreport.org/IMG/pdf/wnisr2023-v5.pdfSource 3:
https://ourworldindata.org/electricity-mixSource 4:
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/plans-for-new-reactors-worldwideSource 5:
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https://www.leifiphysik.de/kern-teilchenphysik/kernspaltung-und-kernfusion/grundwissen/kettenreaktionSource 12:
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