Beijing:
Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially increasing the supply of carbon-free electricity to keep the country's economy booming, state television reported on Monday.
The new technology will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China's nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to provide new fuel, said the state television network, CCTV.
Russia, India, Japan and several European countries already reprocess nuclear fuel -- the material used to produce energy from nuclear reactors -- to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, as well as to reduce waste and safely close the nuclear cycle.
The CCTV report gave no details on whether or when China would begin reprocessing using the new technology on an industrial scale.
China overtook the United States as the world's largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so, according to the International Energy Agency, which is based in Paris.
But China is heavily dependent on coal, a major pollutant. The nation has 13 nuclear power plants in use and has ambitious plans to add potentially hundreds more.
Reprocessing nuclear fuel costs significantly more than using the fuel once and storing it as waste. It also raises potential questions, because extracted plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons, although China has long had a nuclear arsenal.
The commercial reprocessing of plutonium was halted in the United States decades ago by President Jimmy Carter because of concerns about nuclear proliferation. President George W. Bush proposed a resumption, but the National Research Council found it to be not economically justifiable. President Obama scrapped the Bush proposal.
Wang Junfeng, project director for the state-run China National Nuclear Corporation, told CCTV the Chinese scientists had employed a chemical process that was effective and safe. CCTV said the country now had enough fuel to last up to 70 years and the new technology could yield enough to last for 3,000 years.
CCTV says the details of the process the Chinese scientists developed after 20 years' work are being kept secret.
The new technology will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China's nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to provide new fuel, said the state television network, CCTV.
Russia, India, Japan and several European countries already reprocess nuclear fuel -- the material used to produce energy from nuclear reactors -- to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, as well as to reduce waste and safely close the nuclear cycle.
The CCTV report gave no details on whether or when China would begin reprocessing using the new technology on an industrial scale.
China overtook the United States as the world's largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so, according to the International Energy Agency, which is based in Paris.
But China is heavily dependent on coal, a major pollutant. The nation has 13 nuclear power plants in use and has ambitious plans to add potentially hundreds more.
Reprocessing nuclear fuel costs significantly more than using the fuel once and storing it as waste. It also raises potential questions, because extracted plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons, although China has long had a nuclear arsenal.
The commercial reprocessing of plutonium was halted in the United States decades ago by President Jimmy Carter because of concerns about nuclear proliferation. President George W. Bush proposed a resumption, but the National Research Council found it to be not economically justifiable. President Obama scrapped the Bush proposal.
Wang Junfeng, project director for the state-run China National Nuclear Corporation, told CCTV the Chinese scientists had employed a chemical process that was effective and safe. CCTV said the country now had enough fuel to last up to 70 years and the new technology could yield enough to last for 3,000 years.
CCTV says the details of the process the Chinese scientists developed after 20 years' work are being kept secret.
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