China will finish construction of its first high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGC) on the outskirts of the capital, Beijing, next year. It will be a school for a new generation of nuclear technicians, according to official media reports from Beijing.

The 10 MWe reactor is 40 km from central Beijing, almost at the foot of the Great Wall.

“The construction of the HTGR in Beijing shows that China has entered a higher stage of using nuclear power in a peaceful way,” said Ruan Keqian, an academic at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and a member of China’s energy research group.