China (mainland)
As of 31 December 2022
Mainland China has 55 operable reactors with a total capacity of 53 GWe, primarily at sites along its southeast coastline. It also has 23 reactors under construction as of June 2023, totaling 24 GWe
In January 2023 the first Hualong One reactor in China, unit 3 at Fangchenggang, was connected to the grid. The unit began construction in December 2015.
Four CAP1000 reactors have commenced construction: Sanmen 3&4 in June 2022 and March 2023; and Haiyang 3&4 in July 2022 and April 2023, respectively.
A 1100 MWe Hualong One reactor started construction at Lufeng 5 in September 2022.
In February 2023 construction began on a 23 km-long heating pipe network that would transport nuclear-generated heat from the Haiyang plant. The project is planned to be put into operation before the end of 2023 and would provide up to 9.7 million gigajoules, enough to meet the needs of one million residents.
The country’s first industrial heating project from a nuclear power plant was completed in December 2022. The Zhejiang Haiyan Nuclear Energy Heating Demonstration Project uses residual thermal power from the Qinshan plant in winter to supply 288,000 gigajoules of heat to public facilities, residential communities and industrial parks in Haiyan County.
In November 2022 CNNC began construction of China’s first nuclear generation-supported pumped hydro storage project, with power from the Zhangzhou plant.
Figure Ch1. Annual electricity output (TWh) and age of reactors (years) at time of generation
Figure Ch2. Average capacity factor of reactors in mainland China
Figure Ch3. Emissions avoidance through use of nuclear generation in mainland China
WNN Links
Construction begins of fourth Haiyang unit : World Nuclear News - 25 April 2023
China starts building long-distance nuclear heating pipeline : World Nuclear News - 17 February 2023
Construction starts on fourth Sanmen unit :World Nuclear News -22 March 2023
First CGN Hualong One reactor enters commercial operation :World Nuclear News - 27 March 2023
Construction of Lufeng 5 gets under way : World Nuclear News - 9 September 2022