BEIJING — Chinese scientists have mastered the technology for reprocessing fuel from nuclear power plants, potentially boosting the supplies of carbon- free electricity to keep the country’s economy booming, state television reported Monday.
The breakthrough will extend by many times the amount of power that can be generated from China’s nuclear plants as fissile and fertile materials are recovered to be turned into new fuel, CCTV said.
Several European countries, Russia, India and Japan already reprocess nuclear fuel — the actual materials used to make nuclear energy — to separate and recover the unused uranium and plutonium, reduce waste and safely close the nuclear cycle.
The CCTV report gave no details on whether or when China would begin reprocessing on an industrial scale.
China overtook the United States as the world’s largest energy consumer in 2009, years before it was expected to do so, according to the Paris-based International Energy Agency.
