The No. 3 generator unit at the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in South China's Guangxi Autonomous Region was put into operation on March 25. It is the first Hualong One nuclear power generator unit in West China.
So far, China General Nuclear Power Corporation (CGN) has 27 nuclear power generator units in operation, with an installed capacity of more than 30.56 million kilowatts.
A staff member at Guangxi Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Co., Ltd. said that the operation of the No. 3 generator unit at the plant verifies the safety and maturity of Hualong One, China's third generation nuclear power technology with completely independent intellectual property rights.
The Fangchenggang nuclear power project is in line with Guangxi's coastal clean power source base plan and is expected to promote the region's economic and social development and green energy transformation.
A view of the No. 3 generator unit at the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in South China's Guangxi Autonomous Region [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
The Fangchenggang nuclear power project is the first of its kind built in the western region and in an area inhabited by ethnic groups in China, and is a key project of China's Western Development program.
The project is designed to be equipped with six 1-million-kilowatt nuclear power units. The first phase of the project started operation in 2016 and has generated more than 100 billion kilowatt-hours of clean power. The second phase includes two Hualong One technology-based generator units, each of which is expected to generate nearly 10 billion kWh of power annually.
Once fully operational, the plant is expected to exceed 34.5 billion kWh, which can meet the annual power demand for production and domestic use of 5.87 million people. The power output equals that produced by burning more than 10.4 million metric tons of standard coal annually, a reduction of about 28.56 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
The environmental efficiency is an equivalent of new forest planting of 78,000 hectares.
A view of the steam generator applied on the No. 3 Hualong One generator unit at the Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant in Guangxi [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]
According to CGN, the Hualong One technology passed the European Utility Requirement (EUR) compliance assessment and obtained EUR certification on Oct 20, 2020. Later on Feb 7, 2022, it passed the Generic Design Assessment (GDA) in the UK and obtained the Design Approval Confirmation (DAC) and the Statement of Design Acceptability (SoDA) certificates.
"The Hualong One reactor was strictly designed following China's regulatory requirements. The power of the reactor core has increased by about 9 percent compared to the second-generation nuclear power units on the basis of improved safety," said Lu Xianghui, chief expert of the theoretical design of CGN's reactors and chief engineer of CGN Research Institute Ltd.
It's worth noting that the "Hemu system" independently developed by CGN is China's first nuclear digital instrument control platform. It was the first time the system has been applied to the Hualong One generator unit after passing the cold test, hot test, loading and grid connection tests.
"The operation of the generator unit verifies the good integration of China's third-generation nuclear power technology and the advanced nuclear power instrument and control equipment," said a staff member at CGN's subsidiary in East China's Shanghai Municipality.
(Executive editor: Xie Yunxiao)
