China is steadily advancing the use of nuclear technology to treat industrial effluents. The promotion of this technology will contribute to cope with the sewage treatment problems in industrial production.
Ionizing radiation technology is a kind of nuclear technology which has been approved by International Atomic Energy Agency. China’s first demonstration project to treat industrial wastewater using ionizing radiation technology was launched in 2017 in Jinhua, Zhejiang Province. It can process 1,500 cubic meters of wastewater discharged from printing and dyeing enterprises every day.
Wang Jianlong, a professor at Tsinghua University who participated in the project, told reporters that after the successful operation of Jinhua’s wastewater treatment plant, Tsinghua University and its partners plan to use ionizing radiation technology to build more wastewater treatment plants. They are currently building a treatment plant that can process 30,000 tons of wastewater per day in Jiangmen, Guangdong. It is expected to be operational in the first half of next year. It is also planned to build a factory in Xinjiang (northwest of China) to treat wastewater from antibiotic production.
Yang Dazhu, deputy director general of IAEA, fully affirmed the advancement of this technology in China. Ionizing radiation technology does not use radioactive nuclear materials in the treatment of wastewater, and does not produce any radiation after power failure. Ionizing radiation treatment wastewater is listed by IAEA as the main research subject of the world’s peaceful use of nuclear energy.
Wang Jianlong said that if the output of electron accelerators required for the application of this technology can meet the demand, this wastewater treatment technology is expected to be more widely promoted.
