World's First Hualong One Nuclear Reactor Goes into Operation

The No. 5 unit of China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC)'s Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant in Southeast China's Fujian province, the world's first Hualong One nuclear reactor, went into operation on Nov 27.

The generator unit has been working soundly with all technical indices meeting designed requirements, which lays a solid foundation for future commercial operation.

Its operation confirms that China has become a country with advanced nuclear power technology, which is significant in development of its nuclear power industry and promotes the Hualong One technology in countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative.

It will improve competitiveness of China's nuclear power industry and contribute to improvement of energy structure and development of green and low-carbon production.

The Hualong One is China's third generation nuclear power technology with completely independent intellectual property rights.

Developed, designed, manufactured and operated by CNNC, it has a design life of 60 years and the world's top security standard thanks to technologies like double-layer containment.

Construction of the No. 5 unit at Fuqing Nuclear Power Plant started in May 2015. During the construction, CNNC joined hands with 58 state-owned enterprises and more than 140 private firms and with over 5,000 companies along the industrial chain and made breakthroughs in manufacturing 411 pieces of core equipment.

In addition, more than 700 patents and 120 software copyrights were created and one international nuclear power standard was issued.

More testing and performance assessments will be carried out later.

So far, there are six Hualong One nuclear power generator units under construction in the world.

A view of China's Hualong One project [Photo/sasac.gov.cn]

(Executive editor: Wang Ruoting)