CRChair brought this one to my attention. Apparently, China is working on building a new "pebble bed" nuclear plant over the next 5 years as a proof of concept of their ability to use nuclear power to meet the rapidly growing energy needs of the nation. Apparently, "pebble bed" reactors replace expensive (and weaponizable) control rods and uranium/plutonium cores with a gravel put of "pebbles" with a graphite (i.e. radiation-absorbing) outer shell around a small uranium core. The arrangement uses the uranium to keep the reaction producing energy, and uses the graphite to keep the reaction slow enough to be safe. And processing spent pebbles into useful weapons material is apparently more cost-prohibitive than just buying a used warhead from a former Soviet republic.
Not sure how I feel about this, but I am sure that this will not fly in the USA. To the environmentalists, there is no such thing as a "good" nuke and when you realize that we have to deal with the radioactive waste from this plant, even if it is not weaponizable, you have to wonder if they have a point.
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