China’s first nuclear power unit using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, was put into commercial operation on Saturday, according to a statement from the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), released on Saturday.
China’s first nuclear power unit using Hualong One technology, a domestically developed third-generation reactor design, was put into commercial operation on Saturday, according to a statement from the China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC), released on Saturday.
This makes China one of the countries that, along with the U.S., France, and Russia, owns independent third-generation nuclear technology, the CNNC said.
The reactor in Fuqing in southeast China’s Fujian Province has a designed lifespan of 60 years. There are 177 reactor cores functioning for 18 months until the next refueling.
Eighty-eight percent of all equipment was made domestically, including all core equipment, suggesting capability for mass production, said the CNNC.
Each unit has a 1.16-million-kilowatt generating capacity for about 10 billion kilowatts/hour of electricity per year, meeting the annual demand of a medium-level developed country with a population of one million.
It’s estimated that it can save 3.12 million tons of standard coal, cutting back 8.16 million tons of carbon dioxide.
Originally published at Cgtn