Center staff landed in Beijing on April 3, 2007 and we were briefed by the staff of Tsinghua University’s Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology, High Temperature Reactor (HTR) General Design Division. We were briefed by Dr. Dong Yujie, Director of the HTR Division, Dr. Wang Hong, Associate Professor of the HTR Division and Jiang Yan.
The Center was invited to Tsinghua University by HTR Director Dong Yujie. They presented a compreshensive description of their groundbreaking Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR). It is the only operational reactor of this type in the world. In the diagram below helium drives the generators In the Tsinghua research reactor the helium heats water in a secondary loop to produce steam to drive the turbine generators.
China plans to patent its own reactors and PBMR will be one of those technologies. China is also working with Westinghouse to develop another third generation nuclear power plant design