Pebble bed reactors
The German pebble-bed reactors (AVR, THTR-300) built in the 1970s both broke and leaked radioactive crud into the environment. The Chinese have been running their HTR-10, a small prototype helium-cooled pebble-bed reactor for about ten years on and off and they've finished building the first HTR-PM, a small (105MWe) "modular" pebble-bed reactor which is, in theory, capable of being built in quantity to generate useful amounts of electricity. As of April this year they were starting to load the HTR-PM with moderator pellets, with fuel pellets to follow later. I believe it's supposed to be operational by the end of this year but it will be going through a test and experimental operation process before they decide to build more.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
