The world's first fourth-generation nuclear power plant, Huaneng Shandong Shidao Bay Nuclear Power Plant in eastern China's Shandong Province, went into commercial operation on December 6, 2023 and has been running well, according to officials at the
just china sass in the comments so far but this is pretty intersting:
“The entire ceramic armor can withstand very high temperatures, and under any working conditions, the temperature of the fuel ball will not exceed the temperature that the ceramic armor can tolerate,” Tong said.
He stressed that in this way, the design ensures that radioactive materials will not leak out.
The operator said that each sphere has the energy equal to 1.5 tonnes of coal and there is no need for the usual procedure of temporarily shutting down reactors for refueling, allowing constant operation.