China has achieved the mass production of carbon-14 isotopes via its commercial reactor for the first time, announced the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) on Saturday.
According to the CNNC, the project was carried out in China's very first nuclear power plant, Qinshan, and the production capacity is expected to fully meet domestic demand, as some 150 curies of carbon-14 was produced, much higher than the annual import of around 100 curies.
The Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant, located in Jiaxing City, east China's Zhejiang Province, inaugurated the project in 2022 by producing the carbon-14 in a heavy water reactor of commercial nuclear power units, in an attempt to ensure the domestic supply of the radioactive isotopes.
"The first difficulty actually came from both the technical and management barriers. It's known to all that a nuclear power plant is a power-producing reactor. If we want to product carbon-14, we need to understand user demand for the first step. Second, we have to put the target into the reactor and irradiate it. After the radiation, the target object needs to go through a nuclear chemical process to get purified and transformed into the material that meets the requirement for application. The whole process spans a relatively long chain," said Shang Xianhe, general manager of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant.
Carbon-14 is widely applied as a marker in agriculture, chemistry, medicine, biology and other fields for being radioactive and detectable.
In the past, China's carbon-14 supply largely relied on imports, which were both costly and uncertain, and the development of its downstream industries was also severely constrained as a result.
After achieving domestic production, this phenomenon is expected to see improvement.
"Now that we are able to produce carbon-14 domestically, it will greatly increase the number of domestic users and further promote the development of downstream application technologies for carbon-14," Shang said.
China achieves comprehensive domestic production of carbon-14 supply
Chinese President Xi Jinping's upcoming state visit to France marks a pivotal moment for strengthening Sino-French strategic cooperation amid global tensions, according to Pascal Boniface, founder of the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.
From May 5 to 10, Xi will tour Europe, including stops in France, Serbia, and Hungary -- his first European visit in five years.
During an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN) in Paris, Boniface shared his perspectives on the importance of this visit.
"It's a very important visit, because, as you have mentioned, President Xi has not visited Europe for the last five years due to COVID-19. And it's a very important period of time due to many wars: the wars between Russia and Ukraine, the war in Gaza between Palestinians and Israelis. I think it's a very important time to enhance the cooperation, strategic cooperation between France and China, and to think about the way we could together try to ease the tension and to make progress towards peace," Boniface explained.
Boniface also discussed the potential impact of Xi's visit on Sino-French relations, emphasizing that it provides a platform for Xi to articulate Chinese policies to the French people.
"Because President Xi will be seen by most of the French people and will read important speeches, so he could elaborate Chinese policy and present its policy to the French people. It is good to have a visit, because it will be in the spotlight for two days, or even before by the fact, because we have begun to speak about the Chinese president's visit since now. So it's a very good way. And I think we need to have regular visits, regular meetings between our two leaders," Boniface noted.
Regarding Europe's strategic autonomy -- a policy endorsed by French President Emmanuel Macron during his visit to China last year -- Boniface stressed the significant work still required for France to achieve this goal without compromising its commitments to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
"To be frank, many of French people share this view, but not too many people inside Europe. So it's really a work in progress, because most European countries are dedicated to American umbrella, strategic umbrella. And so, for some of them, most of them, to be frank, the strategic autonomy of Europe could be a way to be separated from the USA. It's not the case, so we have to work a little bit more to convince our partners. But we could have strategic autonomy without leaving NATO," Boniface said.
Expert highlights significance of President Xi's upcoming visit to France
