POWER February 2022 - 7

GLOBAL MONITOR
gas-fired power station emits into the atmosphere
every year. "
Pasini said Energy Dome expects to
have a steady supply of CO2
this CO2
. " Sourcing
will not be an issue as there is a
choice of industrial gas providers willing
and able to supply, " he said. " And, with
carbon capture on the increase, if anything,
folks may be happy that we take
it off their hands. " He added, " We don't
anticipate having to do much re-filling.
There might be marginal dissipation of
CO2
during maintenance and a very occasional
top-up might be required during
the 25-year lifecycle of the plant. "
A2A, an Italian company active in the
energy sector, has entered a memorandum
of understanding with Energy
Dome to deploy the company's first
commercial project, which Pasini said
would be a 100-MWh system. A2A has
said that system could support increased
use of renewable energy and provide additional
energy storage for the power
grid. A2A participated in Energy Dome's
recent funding, through a partnership
with the round's lead investor, 360 Capital,
a technology venture capital firm.
-Darrell Proctor is a senior associate
editor for POWER.
China Starts Up First FourthGeneration
Nuclear Reactor
The first of two units at China's muchwatched
high-temperature gas-cooled
modular pebble bed (HTR-PM) demonstration
project was successfully connected
to the grid on Dec. 20. The achievement
marks a major milestone for fourth-generation
advanced nuclear technology.
Grid-connection of Unit 1 at the " national
project " at the Shidao Bay site
(Figure 2) in Rongcheng, Shandong
Province, will be soon followed by Unit
2. When commercially operational as
expected in mid-2022, the two HTRPMs
will drive a single 210-MWe steam
turbine. Construction of the pioneering
project began in December 2012, led
by China Huaneng (which holds a 47.5%
stake in the demonstration), along with
China National Nuclear Corp. (CNNC)
subsidiary China Nuclear Engineering
Corp. (CNEC, 32.5%), and Tsinghua University's
Institute of Nuclear and New
Energy
Technology
(20%).
Chinergy,
a joint venture between Tsinghua and
CNEC, served as the engineering, procurement,
and construction contractor
for the nuclear island.
As Tsinghua's Institute of Nuclear
and New Energy Technology has noted,
the demonstration project stems from
a series of developments that marked a
" qualitative leap from laboratory to engineering
application. " High-temperature
gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) technology
has been explored for decades. China's
own HTGR research and development
program kicked off in the mid-1970s,
echoing similar government-led initiatives
to develop the 200-MWth HTR-module of
the Siemens/Interatom Company in Germany,
and General Atomics' 350-MWth
modular high-temperature gas-cooled reactor
MHTGR in the U.S.
China's research institutions eventually
accomplished the construction of the
HTR-10 test reactor in the late 1990s. In
February 2008, China approved the 200MWe
HTR-PM demonstration plant as
part of its slate of National Major Science
and Technology Projects. As Tsinghua noted,
the government then anticipated the
technology would prove to be " a highly
efficient nuclear power technology, as a
supplement to pressurized water reactor
[PWR] technology. " Chinese researchers
also heralded the technology's high-heat
potential, as well as the opportunity to further
global innovation in advanced nuclear
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POWER February 2022

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