SCHOTT, a leading international technology group from Germany with excellence in advanced electronic packaging, specialty glasses, materials and other cutting-edge technologies, has started supply of first hermetic glass-to-metal sealed electrical penetration assemblies to China's first commercial High Temperature Reactor (HTR). As part of the arrangement, the German company recently delivered the first feedthrough to the Institute of Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University for testing and training purposes.

A demonstration plant is currently under construction at Shidaowan, in the Shandong province of China, and happens at a time when many of the world's leading energy consuming countries are trying to develop their independence in energy generation through scientific and technological advancements. While the emphasis to employ safe and environmentally-friendly energy generation operations gathers precedence, the latest acquisition by China is looked upon as the safest and most reliable EPA technology available today.

China, which is often described as the leading centre for new nuclear reactor designs, with the procurement of hermetic glass-to-metal sealed EPAs has conveyed the need for induction of promising technologies into the nuclear power industry for ensuring safety. The high temperature reactor with pebble bed modules (HTR-PM), for example, is considered to be one of the most promising next-generation reactors with its inherent safety features. Though many issues have been raised world over about the safety aspects of nuclear power plants, it has been becoming imperative to tackle the issue through induction of the best-in-class critical technologies like that of SCHOTT's.

According to Dr Oliver Fritz, Head of Technology for the Nuclear Safety Division at SCHOTT Electronic Packaging, "The standard glass-to-metal sealed penetrations are able to comfortably withstand temperatures in the range of -200 to +240 degrees Celsius. Special material combinations can even tolerate up to 1000 degrees Celsius for a period of time. As latest tests have shown, our EPAs remain completely airtight even at pressure peaks above 100 bar - it is the safest and most reliable sealing technology for EPAs available today". The importance of such precision technology can be gauged against the backdrop of certain crisis the world witnessed in recent times. The Fukushima episode for example.