China officially brings two more Hualong One nuclear units online

China has officially started operations at two new Hualong One nuclear units with an installed capacity of 1116 MW. In both cases, they are the first units at the Taipingling and San'ao nuclear power plants, which will each have a total of six units once completed. China began construction of Taipingling 1 in December 2019, while construction of San'ao 1 started a year later. They are the 7th and 8th Chinese-designed nuclear units to enter operation in the country. Another 40 Hualong One units are at various stages of planning and construction.

Chinese energy company China General Nuclear (CGN) announced that it brought two new Hualong One nuclear units into commercial operation in the second half of April. First, on 20 April, Taipingling 1 began commercial operation in the Greater Bay Area (the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region) in Guangdong province. China plans to build a total of 6 nuclear units at the plant in three phases, with engineers expected to bring its sister unit, Taipingling 2, online later this year as well.

“The first unit of the Taipingling project has completed all performance tests and 168 hours of continuous full-power operational assessment. All parameters are currently normal and stable, and the unit is in good condition,” said Zhang Guoqiang, Party secretary and chairman of CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power.

CGN expects the new unit to generate more than 9 TWh of electricity annually, enough to meet the needs of 1 million people in the region. The company also said it drew on experience from previous projects during construction. Hualong One at Taipingling 1 incorporates a total of 26 design improvements. The unit is entering commercial operation around 5.5 years after construction began (December 2020).

A pipeline of new Chinese nuclear units

The second unit to enter operation was the first unit at the San'ao nuclear power plant in Zhejiang province, on 29 April. The new Hualong One unit, with an installed capacity of 1116 MW, is also the first of the six nuclear units planned for the San'ao plant. CGN officially began construction of San'ao 1 in December 2019. The San'ao project is also notable as the first nuclear power plant to use private capital. The Geely Group owns 2% of the project, CGN owns 46%, and various Chinese state-owned companies hold the rest.

“Once all six units are completed, we expect annual power generation to exceed 54 terawatt-hours, approaching 80% of Wenzhou's total annual electricity consumption. This will effectively reduce standard coal consumption by more than 16.35 million tonnes per year and carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 50 million tonnes,” CGN said in a press release, outlining the benefits.

The new nuclear units at Taipingling and San'ao are CGN's 29th and 30th operating nuclear units. CGN's total installed nuclear capacity under management has now reached 34.2 GW. The company has nearly 20 more nuclear units at various stages of planning and construction, the vast majority of which will use Hualong One technology. China now has 8 Hualong One units in operation, with another 40 at various stages of planning and construction.