Chinese researchers achieve major breakthrough in nuclear energy

Chinese researchers recently reported a breakthrough in increasing the usage rate of uranium materials from current 1 percent to more than 95 percent.

Xu Hushan, deputy head of the Institute of Modern Physics under Chinese Academy of Sciences, released the latest development at a news conference on Thursday.

Xu said that researchers at the institute carried out laboratory simulation to prove the effectiveness of a new system, called Accelerator Driven Advanced Nuclear Energy System (ADANES).

The new system would reduce the nuclear waste to less than 4 percent of the spent fuel, lowering the radiation lifetime from hundreds of thousands of years to about 500 years.

China has launched its strategy to develop clean, efficient, safe and reliable nuclear energy to secure the country's economic and social sustainable development, but problems exist in usage rate and waste disposal, Xu said.

In 2011, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the program of developing future accelerator driven subcritical transmutation system (ADS), but Chinese researchers later realized that the ADS system had little economic competitiveness and huge technological challenges.

Chinese researchers raised the new ADANES system concept and made the technological breakthrough in six years to make nuclear fission become a sustainable, safe and clean energy source.