Reactor part of Beijing’s plans to boost power in booming Yangtze Delta region
Unit 1 of the Taipingling nuclear power station project in Guangzhou province, southern China, has begun commercial operation, China General Nuclear Power (CGN), the state-owned energy developer, has announced.
The 1,116-MW domestic Hualong One pressurised water reactor (PWR) unit was initially connected to the grid and produced its first electricity on 13 February.
The Hualong One, also known as the HPR1000, is a domestically developed PWR that combines features from China National Nuclear Corporation’s ACP1000 and China General Nuclear’s ACPR1000+ designs.
Taipingling-1, built by CGN Huizhou Nuclear Power, a subsidiary of CGN, completed all commissioning work and met the conditions for commercial operation on 19 April, the Shenzhen-based parent firm noted.
CGN said Taipingling-1 is the first domestic Hualong One reactor unit to begin operation in the greater Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau bay area of southern China around the Yangtze Delta.
It said the area is seeing the emergence of a number of leading artificial intelligence companies such as DeepSeek. The “explosive” growth in computing power demand has led to a continuous increase in energy consumption, CGN said.
The International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) database of nuclear plants in China says China has 60 plants in commercial operation and 35 under construction. About half of those are domestic Hualong One units.
CGN previously said there will be six domestic Hualong One PWR units at the Taipingling site with a total project cost estimated at CNY120 billion (€14.9bn, $17bn). Construction of Unit 1 began in December 2019. Construction has also begun of Units 2 and 3.
China is aiming for 200 GW of nuclear capacity by 2035, up from around 57 GW today. Nuclear is expected to contribute about 10% of power generation in the country by 2035 – up from around 4.5 today – and 18% by 2060, with a total generation capacity of 400 GW by 2060, the China Nuclear Energy Association has said.
The control room at the Taipingling-1 nuclear power plant. Courtesy CGN.
