Site in east of country planned to have six Hualong One reactor units
China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) said first safety related concrete has been poured for the nuclear island of Unit 2 at the Jinqimen nuclear power station in Zhejiang province, eastern China.
State-owned CNNC subsidiary CNNC Zhejiang Energy Company plans to build six Hualong One units at the site, near Ningbo to the south of Shanghai. Each unit will have a gross design capacity of 1,200 MW and be capable of operating for 60 years. CNNC will be the owner and operator.
China’s National Nuclear Safety Administration issued a construction licence for Units 1 and 2 at Jinqimen in February 2025. First concrete was poured for Unit 1 in August 2025.
The new facility will be the fourth commercial nuclear station in Zhejiang province. The seven-unit Qinshan nuclear station is already operational, while two units are also being built at both Sanmen – which has two existing units – and Sanao.
The Hualong One, also known as the HPR1000, is a Generation III pressurised water reactor technology jointly developed by CNNC and China General Nuclear Power Group.
The Jinqimen station is expected to generate 55 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year once fully operational, equivalent to half of Ningbo’s electricity consumption last year, CNNC said.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), China has 60 commercial nuclear power plants in operation and 35 under construction, but those figures do not include Jinqimen-2. In 2024, the nuclear fleet’s share of electricity production was 4.7%.
According to a recent report in the state-owned Global Times, quoting the China Nuclear Energy Association (CNEA), China has 102 nuclear power units either in commercial operation, under construction or approved for construction.
According to the CNEA, these 102 units have a total installed capacity of 113 GW. If they were all in operation this would put China significantly ahead of current leader the US, which has about 95 GW. China’s current installed capacity is about 55 GW, but it has ambitious plans to reach 70 GW by 2025 under Beijing’s 14th Five-Year Plan.
China is expected to leapfrog the US to become the world’s largest generator of nuclear power.
In November China poured first concrete for two new nuclear power plants: Unit 1 of the Zhaoyuan nuclear power station in Shandong province, northeastern China and Unit 3 at Sanao in Zhejiang province.
