China may deploy ‘baby reactors’ to South China Sea islands in five years – report - home battery pack
According to the South China Morning Post, the nuclear device is called "hedianbao" or "portable nuclear battery pack ".
Despite the name, it's not a future fission battery, it's a fairly small lead battery.
A cooling reactor that can be put into a standard container, measuring about 6.
1 m long 2. 6 meters high.
As the size is so small, the device will be able to generate 10 MW of heat and, if converted into electricity, will be sufficient to supply power to about 50,000 households, the report said.
It is reported that the Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted research in Hefei, Anhui province.
The research project was partly funded by the People's Liberation Army.
The newspaper quoted Professor Huang Qunying as saying: "Part of our money comes from the military, but we hope-this is our ultimate goal-that the technology will eventually benefit civilian users, "said a nuclear scientist involved in the study.
However, the researchers said it would be quite difficult to use to convince the public that the technology is safe enough.
According to reports, the researchers admitted that the technology is similar to the small nuclear reactor used on Soviet submarines in the 1970 s.
China seems to be the first country to plan to use the technology on shore.
China had previously considered building conventional floating power plants to generate electricity for the South China Sea islands.
An unnamed environmental researcher at Ocean University of China has expressed concerns about the impact of future reactor safety and its use on ecosystems.
"Many fish and marine life will not be able to cope with the dramatic changes in the environment caused by large-scale seawater desalination and the rising temperature of seawater caused by nuclear reactors, the newspaper quoted the researchers as saying.
"If there is a nuclear disaster in the South China Sea, it will not have a direct impact on people living on the mainland because it is far from the mainland," the researchers added . ".
"But radioactive waste will enter the body of fish and other marine life and may eventually appear at our table.
Currents can also bring waste to the distant coast.
"The South China Sea is at the center of tensions between countries competing for waterways and offshore resources.
China, the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan-which Beijing sees as part of its territory-have overlapping sovereignty in the region.
On July, the United Nations arbitration court ruled that there was no evidence that China had exclusive control over waters or resources in history, so "China has no legal basis for claiming historical rights.