China is the third country to build and adopt a floating reactor, after the US and Russia. According to South China Morning Post, marine engineers said that China’s first floating nuclear power station may be able to endure a once-in-10,000-years weather catastrophe.

China’s ambitious “floating nuclear reactor” project- ACPR50S has been tested extensively to check its resilience against hurricanes and extreme weather events.

However, experts added the mooring crane on the ship-like facility would need to be strengthened to prevent the entire plant from breaking loose if it tried to ride out the storm at a port.

The 60-megawatt reactor is being developed off China’s East Coast to power oil rigs and islands in the Bohai Waterway.

This floating reactor is the result of a Chinese plan drawn in 2016 which aims at commercializing a new generation of small and portable nuclear reactors. It is believed to be an idea that primarily strived to power the oil rigs and islands in its lesser developed eastern coast of the country.

According to SCMP, this 30,000-tonne floating reactor will be completed next year. It will be the first of a fleet that China aims to develop along its energy-hungry east coast all the way to the disputed South China Sea.

However, it eventually assumed political significance as China now aims to establish an entire nuclear fleet extending from the Eastern Bohai Sea to the disputed South China Sea.

But according to Belfer Centre report in 2018, once the demonstration unit was built and deployed for trials in the Bohai Sea, the country has plans to build up to 20 floating Nuclear Power Plants to operate in the disputed waters.

 Other countries in the region such as Vietnam and the Philippines who also claim the islands where China’s floating nuclear power plants are anticipated to be tethered in the future.

Not only this, China National Nuclear Cooperation is also building a new floating power station in Yantai, Shandong province that will be more than twice the size of the Bohai Sea project. It will be completed in 2023 and will offer renewable energy to an industrial park that is home to some of China’s largest chemical factories.

According to the corporation, it will also be able to depart the port and operate in international waters in the Yellow Sea.

Apart from providing electricity and powering the oil rigs in the East-coast, this floating reactor also complements the Chinese quest to phase out coal and adopt cleaner energy, in consonance with its COP26 commitments.

Image Credit: The Sun