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Heavy Water Production
Until the 1980s, China produced heavy water for mainly domestic reactor and military applications. In 1958, China received a 10 MWth heavy water research reactor (HWRR) from the USSR and a supply of heavy water. The USSR cut off its supply of heavy water to China in 1962. COSTIND and the Ministry of Chemical Industry undertook a heavy water production project involving over 30 organizations, producing a heavy water pilot plant which entered operation in 1965. In 1970p China commissioned a heavy water plant using the Girdler Sulfide, H2S/H20 (GS) process, with a 40 ton per year capacity. By 1980, China had a heavy water stockpile of about 300 tons. China reportedly has a small heavy water production facility with a capacity of 40 tons per year. China views heavy water as a chemical product, not a nuclear item. China's heavy water is produced by the Ministry of Chemical Industry. Currently, China uses heavy water primarily to fuel its 15 MWth HWRR and in controlled nuclear fusion research. [Yan Kong, "A Wild Card: Chinese Heavy Water Exports," Eye on Supply, No. 4, Spring 1991, pp. 64, 70; Allan S. Krass, Peter Boskma, Boelie Elzen, and Wim A. Smit, Uranium Enrichment and Nuclear Weapon Proliferation (London: Taylor & Francis, Ltd., 1983), p. 224; Weixing Hu, "China's Nuclear Export Controls: Policy And Regulations," Nonproliferation Review, Winter 1994, p. 7]
Last Updated June 1998
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