Looks like they're going to develop the first "pebble-bed" reactor which is less prone or impermeable to meltdown. Basically you wrap the Uranium core in some layers of graphite and silicon carbide. Since the energy is disperesed over thousands of these spheres they don't need to be water cooled since they shouldn't produce as much heat which in turn should reduce the chances of any meltdown. The future continues to look fun.
The world definitely needs more efficient/less polluting power plants and hopefully these turn out to be safe and effective.
(Seriously, how did I spell China wrong?)
Posted by Jim at February 8, 2005 04:39 PM