China reveals nuclear energy breakthrough with world’s first ‘meltdown-proof’ plant — here’s how it could change the future of nuclear power

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China reveals nuclear energy breakthrough with world’s first ‘meltdown-proof’ plant — here’s how it could change the future of nuclear power

Researchers in China have developed the world’s first meltdown-proof nuclear power plant,

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reported.

Nuclear power is one clean alternative to ****** energy sources such as gas, oil, and coal — all of which produce massive amounts of planet-overheating air pollution. However, the development of more nuclear power plants has been hampered by public ***** of catastrophic nuclear-plant meltdowns such as the widely known meltdowns at Chernobyl and Fukushima.

While disasters like these are rare, they are still a real concern, which makes China’s new meltdown-proof plant potentially exciting for the future of clean energy.

The researchers from Tsinghua University used several new methods to create the plant, which relies on a “pebble-bed reactor” to virtually eliminate the possibility of a meltdown. The reactor is cooled by helium instead of water and uses highly heat-resistant billiard-ball-sized graphite spheres filled with tiny uranium fuel particles in place of large fuel rods.

While the pebble-bed design cannot be retroactively applied to new nuclear power plants, it could serve as a blueprint for future plants, the scientists explained.

While wind and solar tend to garner more headlines as

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that can replace ****** energy, nuclear power also has an important role to play. One of the main challenges of replacing ****** energy ***** in generating enough clean energy to meet demand, so diversifying and relying on a wider variety of sources makes a lot of sense.

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In Wyoming, another nuclear power plant is being built on the site of a retired coal plant — that one also bills itself as being virtually meltdown-proof, by using liquid sodium as a coolant instead of water.

In addition, researchers have discovered a way to make nuclear power plants safer by getting water to boil off and evaporate at a lower temperature. Although nuclear power is already safer than many people believe, these discoveries and inventions are making it safer than ever for future generations.

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