The expansion works have reportedly commenced at the Shidaowan high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) nuclear power plant in east China’s Shandong province.
Located in Rongcheng County, Weihai City, the Shidaowan nuclear facility is jointly built by China National Nuclear (CNNC), Tsinghua University, and China Huaneng Group.
The Chinese nuclear power project has a design net capacity of 200MW.
The Shidaowan project, which is equipped with the fourth generation (GEN IV) of HTGR, was first connected to the grid in 2021. The plant started commercial operations in December 2023.
Its independent intellectual property rights are owned by China.
Phase 1 of the Shidaowan expansion project involves the installation of a domestically developed third-generation pressurised water reactor, Hualong One, which will operate alongside the gas-cooled reactor.
The future expansion plan for the Chinese HTGR nuclear power plant includes the addition of four more pressurised water reactors each with a capacity of more than one million kilowatts.
Upon the completion of the expansion, the Shidaowan HTGR nuclear power plant’s total installed capacity will exceed five million kilowatts. It will have an annual generation capacity of 35 billion kilowatt-hours.
The Shidaowan nuclear facility will generate enough energy for the electricity consumption of more than 17 million three-member households every year.
This output is equivalent to eliminating 11.5 million tonnes of standard coal consumption and mitigating carbon dioxide emissions by 27.6 million tonnes annually.
HTGR Nuclear Power Company vice president Zhang Aijun has been quoted by various media as saying: “We will maximise the effect of the third-generation pressurized water reactor and the fourth-generation high-temperature gas-cooled reactor integrated at the big base, further enhance China’s nuclear power equipment manufacturing, construction, operation and maintenance capabilities, continuously expand the scenarios of comprehensive utilisation of nuclear energy, and cultivate and develop new quality productive forces in nuclear power.”
In a separate announcement, CGN Power said it started the civil construction phase of the Ningde Unit 5 at the Ningde nuclear power plant in China. The new unit deploys HPR1000 nuclear power technology with a capacity of 1.2GW for a single unit.
