Bill Gates better hurry up and build those “homegrown” nuclear reactors across the Pacific Northwest, because China is already on track to outpace the US in applying the newest generation of nuclear power technology to its respective power grid. Bloomberg reported Monday that the country took a significant step forward as its Hualong One reactor began loading fuel for the first time. China National Nuclear Power company, a unit of China National Nuclear, the country’s state-controlled nuclear authority, said Monday that fuel loading started at the Fuqing No. 5 reactor, the first to use the new technology, on Sept. 4. The company recently secured an operating license from the Ministry of Ecology & Environment. It’s not clear when the reactor might restart. As Bloomberg explains, China is on track to develop the new nuclear technology without any help from the US, and Beijing has abruptly ended a three-year freeze […]