Unit 2 of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Connected to the Grid, Phase I Project to be Completed Soon

On July 15, 2016, at 1:30 a.m., Unit 2 of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant connected to the grid and generated power for the first time,  which marks that the construction of first nuclear power plant in western China will be completed soon. To date, CGN has 17 nuclear power units capable of power generation with a total installed capacity of 18.17 GWe.

Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject, jointly invested by CGN and Guangxi Investment Group Co., Ltd. with shareholding of 61% and 39% respectively, is located at the east of Qisha Peninsula of Fangchenggang City, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It’s the first nuclear power plant in western China and was planned in one time and constructed by several phases. The construction of Phase IProject which includes 2 units was approved by the State Council in July, 2010. Unit 1 of Phase IProject officially started commercial operation on January 1, 2016.

Construction of Unit 2 of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject was officially started on December 23, 2010 and then successively achieved significant milestones, including civil construction, equipment installation, system commissioning, fuel loading, criticality, and turbine run-up. After grid-connection, Unit 2 of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant will undergo a period of load trial operation and complete relevant tests. Once every test result meets the requirement, Unit 2 will enter into the phase of full-power trial operation. During full-power trial operation, if all performance indicators of the unit meet the design standards and the state of the unit is stable and satisfies the requirement of grid, it indicates the unit is officially ready for commercial operation.

The two units of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject both adopt the safe, mature and reliable improved pressurized water reactor technology--CPR1000 which is independently designed by CGN. The construction of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject further improves the independence and localization level of China’s nuclear power industry. According to the statistics, the comprehensive localization ratio of Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject is above 80%.

According to the estimation, Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IProject could provide 15 TWh safe, clean and economical electricity to Beibu Gulf Economic Zone every year. Compared with the coal-fired power plants with the same capacity, it could reduce the consumption of 4.82 million tons of standard coal and the emission reduction of 11.86 million tons of CO2, 0.19 million tons of SO2 and NOX. The environment protection effect is corresponding to affforestation of 32,500 hectares, thus plays a positive role in controlling air pollution, accomplishing the goal of controlling greenhouse gas emissions and protecting ecological environment. Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant will accelerate the opening and development of the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone and the Pearl River-West River Economic Belt, constructing international channels facing the ASEAN region, creating strategic support point for the opening and development of southwestern and central-south area of China.

Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IIProject adopts China’s Generation-III nuclear technology with proprietary intellectual property rights--HPR 1000. Construction of Unit 3 was already started on December 24, 2015. As the primarily promoted brand for “Go Global” of China’s nuclear power industry, Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant is expected to be the bridgehead for expanding international nuclear power market. Taking Fangchenggang Nuclear Power Plant Phase IIProject as reference plant, the proposed CGN-led Bradwell B project in the UK will also adopt HPR 1000 technology to lay a critical foundation for equipment manufacturing and other industries to go global on a large scale driven by independent technologies.