The Ministry of National Defense held a regular press conference on June 30. At the meeting, they asked, after the Fujian ship, will China build many large aircraft carriers? Is it slowly changing its defensive national defense policy?
In this regard, Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, deputy director of the Information Bureau of the Ministry of National Defense, once again stated China's consistent attitude. The development of weapons is not aimed at any country or specific goals. Our continuous progress is to safeguard the country's security and sovereignty. How will China's aircraft carriers develop in the future? , naturally it is determined according to the country’s security needs and technical conditions.
Because the meeting mentioned the development of my country's future aircraft carrier, many netizens began to care about the trends of 004. Of course, the focus was still on the installation of nuclear power. Some sharp-eyed netizens even speculated from two details that the future 004 might actually be equipped with nuclear power?
Picture: Senior Colonel Tan Kefei, Spokesperson of the Ministry of National Defense
The first detail
On June 27, according to CCTV reports, the " Linglong No. 1 " demonstration project is under construction. As my country's commercial small nuclear reactor, "Linglong 1" has made significant progress as early as April this year, completing the pouring of the second floor of the internal structure of the reactor pit for the world's first reactor.
If you want to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, you must first have a good "heart." And because the "Linglong One" project is making good progress, many military fans are looking forward to it becoming the power plant of 004.
"Linglong No. 1" was independently developed by China National Nuclear Corporation after more than ten years. Its power generation power is 125,000 kilowatts. After completion, the annual power generation can reach 1 billion kilowatt hours. "Linglong No. 1" adopts modular small reactor technology, which can meet various purposes such as seawater desalination, regional power supply, and industrial heating. Due to its small size, it can also be installed on ships as a source of power and electric energy, becoming a "sea power source" at sea. mobile power".
Picture: "Linglong No. 1" demonstration project
If the aircraft carrier needs to be driven, the reactor needs to have strong power. For comparison, the 100,000-ton Nimitz-class aircraft carrier in the United States has two A4W reactors installed, which can output 260,000 horsepower. The two "Linglong One" reactors can probably provide about 280,000 horsepower, which is equivalent to the power of the Ford-class aircraft carrier . It seems that the "Linglong One" is fully capable of being used on aircraft carriers.
However, the shortcomings of "Linglong One" cannot be ignored, that is, the abundance of in the fuel rods is relatively low. The abundance of Linglong 1’s fuel rods is between 3-5%, which is close to that of civilian nuclear power plants. The U.S. military reactor A4W fuel rod abundance can reach about 66%, and the difference between the two data is still very large. Low abundance will lead to continuous replacement of fuel rods in the future, and this time interval is very short, basically every few years, which will greatly increase the cost of use.
Therefore, if "Linglong 1" wants to be applied to aircraft carriers, the problem of fuel rod abundance must first be solved to ensure the power needs of aircraft carriers above 80,000 tons.
The second detail
On February 27, 2018, The high-quality development strategy outline for the new era released by China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation pointed out that in order for the navy to achieve strategic transformation and move towards deep blue seas in 2025, equipment including nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is being developed .
This news from China Shipbuilding Industry Corporation revealed that there are already plans to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier belonging to China. The three aircraft carriers currently owned by China are all conventionally powered, so many people speculate that 004 may use nuclear power.
However, we must treat this news rationally. If we want to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, we still need to overcome a number of key technologies. Even if there are plans to build a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, it may not necessarily be 004, but may be 005.
Picture: Fujian ship
Whether it is conventional power or nuclear power, as Colonel Tan Kefei said, it will be determined according to the country's security needs and technical conditions. At present, our country's naval strategy is still in the "distant sea protection, offshore defense" stage, and an 80,000-100,000-ton conventionally powered aircraft carrier can indeed meet the needs. But with the strategic transformation in the future, the emergence of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers is only a matter of time.
